Raid Demo guide

Post Reply
User avatar
claptrap

Raid Demo guide

#1 » Post by claptrap » 26 Jul 2011 21:22

I've noticed people here posting links to guides that are either out of date, or for Cataclysm content so here's a guide for 3.3.5 Demo raiding:


After going afflction for a LONG time I decided to look into Demonology and see what it's all about. I liked what I saw and now run it often. Keep in mind this is an end game spec only. If you aren't in at least T9, this won't work as well.

So why go Demo? Well, the dps is competitive with destro and affliction, but on top of that you bring much more raid utility to the table. Here's the spec I use.

Here

You want to be using the Felgaurd as your pet, glyphs are Life Tap, Quick Decay/Metamorphosis, Felguard. You can also use the imp if you prefer that. Gives you more raid utility, but at the cost of a slight dps loss. Just change out the 3 points in Demonic Brutality to Improved Imp.

Your main stats are the same as any other lock spec. Hit rating untill capped, SP>Haste>Crit. Anything else, don't go out of your way to get.

Keep in mind though, this spec only really shines in raids. DO NOT come crying to me saying "but I do more damage on target dummies using my old spec!" Target dummies are for practicing your rotation, not determining what spec is better. Demo shines because of Decimation, and you won't get that effect off a target dummy. More on Decimation in a bit.

The main draw of demo is Demonic Pact. Every time your pet crits, and with a Felguard this will happen ALOT, the entire raid gains spell power equal to 8% of your spell damage. This is why Demo is an end game spec. The higher your spell damage, the better the gain for anyone throwing spells around. If you have a Shaman using Totem of Wrath in the raid, have them use something else. Since ToW and DP do not stack, yours will be the most useful. Just explain that yours adds more damage and that it will free up a totem slot for them to do more dmg and they'll understand. If they don't, oh well, DP will overwrite them since yours will be higher.

The only procs you really watch out for are Molten Core and Decimation. Molten Core has a chance to proc off of a Corruption tick, and when it procs, it increases the damage and reduces the cast time on Incinerate. Decimation really makes this build shine. Your Soul Fire spells have their casting time reduced by 40% and better yet, don't cost any shards.

Use Fel Armor for the SP boost. Make sure to keep the Life Tap glyph buff up, Demonic Empowerment and pop Metamorph when of CD. The DoT's you use are Immolate and Corruption. Spam Shadow Bolt for the Improved Shadow Bolt effect. When Molten core procs, spam incinerate 3 times. Once the target gets down to 35% life, Decimate procs then just spam the hell out of Soul Fire.

Unless the raid is taking major damage, you don't need to worry about your Felguard's life. Fel Synergy will be more than enough to keep him alive. Just send him in and let him do his thing. Make sure you don't have Shadow Cleave on auto unless he's in a group of mobs as this will waste mana. Treat the Felguard as a Warrior. He can dish it out and is a tough bastard, but if you see the melee DPS running away from a boss, have your Felguard come back to you. Ick's explosion is a good example.

Against trash groups, let the tank grab aggro, get close, jump into metamorph, turn on your Immolation Aura and then hit every mob with Seed of Corruption untill dead. Using Tab is great for changing targets quickly. Be VERY careful when doing this however as it will cause HUGE amounts of threat. If you don't trust your tank to hold 15-20k dps, do it slowly.

Be warned, there are some downsides to using this build.

Affliction and Destruction both have ways of passively gaining health back by doing damage. Demo has no such mechanic. The only way you can restore health yourself mid-fight is bandages and healthstones. Essentially you have the durability of a Mage. I know, GROSS but at least you aren't bedazzled like they always are. Because of this...

Demo is a RAID SPEC ONLY. Do not grind as pure Demo (Affliction drain tanking is much better for leveling uptime, you won't have any). Do not PvP as pure Demo.

Also, watch your life taps. Affliction or Destro, you can life tap if you run low on mana and not worry too much since Siphon life or Soul Leech will heal you back up. For a Demo lock, life tap is only used for the glyph buff, so use Rank 1. The good news is Demo is very mana efficient, a replenishment effect from another dps class should be more than enough to keep your mana filled.

User avatar
Royal

Re: Raid Demo guide

#2 » Post by Royal » 26 Jul 2011 23:57

You hardly provide any info of what an demo lock should do and how to act in dungeons or raids... and 50% of the info you do provide is wrong...

User avatar
claptrap

Re: Raid Demo guide

#3 » Post by claptrap » 27 Jul 2011 02:40

Royal wrote:You hardly provide any info of what an demo lock should do and how to act in dungeons or raids... and 50% of the info you do provide is wrong...
A) clearly you didn't bother to read it. if you want a set rotation, then you need to play a different game because most classes use a priority system.
Use Fel Armor for the SP boost. Make sure to keep the Life Tap glyph buff up, Demonic Empowerment and pop Metamorph when of CD. The DoT's you use are Immolate and Corruption. Spam Shadow Bolt for the Improved Shadow Bolt effect. When Molten core procs, spam incinerate 3 times. Once the target gets down to 35% life, Decimate procs then just spam the hell out of Soul Fire.
I'm not putting this up to hold people's hand and play their toon for them. This is a guide telling you the basic info you need to get the ball rolling. I'm not a babysitter.

B) 50% of what I put in there is wrong? What specifically?

C) Good thing I got most of that info from actual retail ICC raiding experience. Before that I learned it from Elitist Jerks when 3.3.5 patch actually dropped because i wanted to see what the demo changes meant.

User avatar
Royal

Re: Raid Demo guide

#4 » Post by Royal » 27 Jul 2011 05:19

A) yup i read all of it... thats why i said only half of it is wrong... and i never asked for an rotation...also im perfectly fine with this game, but it was an nice attempt of you to be funny, much better then your attempt at the guide...

B) im also not here to hold your hand and play your toon for you...if you want advice you can look me up ingame...

C) just cause you played retail that doesnt mean you know how things work...and if just by reading Elitist you would learn the game that there would be a lot more good players...

User avatar
claptrap

Re: Raid Demo guide

#5 » Post by claptrap » 27 Jul 2011 06:05

Royal wrote:A) yup i read all of it... thats why i said only half of it is wrong... and i never asked for an rotation...also im perfectly fine with this game, but it was an nice attempt of you to be funny, much better then your attempt at the guide...

B) im also not here to hold your hand and play your toon for you...if you want advice you can look me up ingame...

C) just cause you played retail that doesnt mean you know how things work...and if just by reading Elitist you would learn the game that there would be a lot more good players...
In no way was I attempting humor. Again, you don't point out anything actually wrong with the guide. So far all you've done is say it's wrong without giving any examples, let alone ANY indication you know what you are actually talking about.

i've killed the LK with this build and spec. Everybody on retail running demo in raids used this build and spec during 3.3.5.

At this point I don't care about your opinion because it's wrong and you've done nothing to prove that you are correct. I've got experience and the knowledge to back it up.

User avatar
Ctrlaltdel

Re: Raid Demo guide

#6 » Post by Ctrlaltdel » 10 Aug 2011 07:34

At this point I don't care about your opinion because it's wrong and you've done nothing to prove that you are correct. I've got experience and the knowledge to back it up.
take note of the bold part because i'm about to blow your friggin mind!

first (minor) mistake i'll make note of is your gkyph choice. rather than the felguard glyph i would suggest you add in glyph or corruption. why you ask? it gives you the nightfall effect on corruption ticks and when paired up with quick decay in any spec is AWESOME ! who doesn't want a change for instant shadow bolts to add to the devastation?

second (also minor) mistake is the fact that you have the WRONG percentage increase listed for DP. it's 10% not 8%


third (not so minor) mistake is the fact that you say demo is for raiding only? HELL NO!! demo is EPIC for leveling as well. with affliction AoE grinding is a slow process of running around spamming corruption on every mob you see. with demo you just gather a group of mobs of any size you wish, activate your VW shield, pop metamorph and immolation aura and start raining fire down on their heads . i killed a group of 15 mobs all 3-5 levels above mine in under 5 seconds.


fourth (MAJOR) mistake is that you say at 35% health decimation will proc. decimation wont proc when your target reaches 35% UNTIL you hit it with either a shadow bolt incenerate or soul fire spell so great job on that one. whatever the case is when decimation becomes available you DO NOT use nothing but soul fires UNLESS you get a molten core proc first. why? molten core also increases the damage from soul fire by 18% (just like incenerate) AND gives it an extra 15% crit chance.

so much for your knowledge and experience huh?

User avatar
claptrap

Re: Raid Demo guide

#7 » Post by claptrap » 15 Aug 2011 03:16

Ctrlaltdel wrote:
take note of the bold part because i'm about to blow your friggin mind!

first (minor) mistake i'll make note of is your gkyph choice. rather than the felguard glyph i would suggest you add in glyph or corruption. why you ask? it gives you the nightfall effect on corruption ticks and when paired up with quick decay in any spec is AWESOME ! who doesn't want a change for instant shadow bolts to add to the devastation?

second (also minor) mistake is the fact that you have the WRONG percentage increase listed for DP. it's 10% not 8%


third (not so minor) mistake is the fact that you say demo is for raiding only? HELL NO!! demo is EPIC for leveling as well. with affliction AoE grinding is a slow process of running around spamming corruption on every mob you see. with demo you just gather a group of mobs of any size you wish, activate your VW shield, pop metamorph and immolation aura and start raining fire down on their heads . i killed a group of 15 mobs all 3-5 levels above mine in under 5 seconds.


fourth (MAJOR) mistake is that you say at 35% health decimation will proc. decimation wont proc when your target reaches 35% UNTIL you hit it with either a shadow bolt incenerate or soul fire spell so great job on that one. whatever the case is when decimation becomes available you DO NOT use nothing but soul fires UNLESS you get a molten core proc first. why? molten core also increases the damage from soul fire by 18% (just like incenerate) AND gives it an extra 15% crit chance.

so much for your knowledge and experience huh?

Mind not blown (and notice the part in bold) AT ALL

First off, your glyph choice is wrong. You'll get more dps out of glyph of felguard than you will out of the chance that you get an instant shadow bolt. Every single strike your felguard makes hit harder, and in a raid situation, that is much more useful.

As for my 2nd mistake: Omg, I quoted a percentage wrong... the principle is still the same. It really doesn't make a difference.

3rd mistake? Please. Yes, you can AoE grind as demo. It's horribly inefficient though, so have fun with that. Affliction is much, much, much more efficient because all you need to do is DoT everything around you, cast haunt occasionally and you'll have so much healing incoming you can life tap all you want. Have fun eating and drinking after every group. Meanwhile I'll be calmly walking around killing things in groups of 10 or more, not having to stop. But since you're such a pro, you'd know that wouldn't you?

As for my "fourth mistake", you show your ignorance, AGAIN. Did you not read the part where I said you should be spamming Shadow Bolt and Incinerate. Hence, when the boss hits 35% health, decimation will proc because there should be either a SB or incinerate leaving your hand. Good job splitting hairs and showing you don't know the mechanics of the class.

As for spamming soul fire: why the hell wouldn't you start spamming soul fire when it does ALMOST DOUBLE THE DAMAGE OF SHADOW BOLT OR INCINERATE WITH HALF THE CAST TIME! It's called basic math numbnuts. So yes, you spam soul fire.

Post Reply

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 1 guest