New Raider's Guide

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Three rules apply in every mode:

1. Stay alive. A dead warlock does zero damage. Your demons keep swinging for a few seconds after you die, but that is not a plan.
2. Keep casting. Demonology does its damage through demons, and every demon came from a cast. Every second you are not casting or moving on purpose is a demon you did not summon.
3. Never sit on Soul Shards or Demonic Cores. Shards cap at 5 and Cores cap at 4. Capped resources are demons thrown away. Spend before you cap, except when you are deliberately saving for Tyrant.

What to check in your logs

After a raid night, open your character on Warcraft Logs and look at these five things, in this order. They tell you more than the big DPS number does.

Fix these in order. Deaths first, then active time, then Tyrant count, then Core waste, then the Tyrant setup. Parse percentile climbs on its own once those are right.

Demonology 101: the five ideas behind every button

Demonology is a resource loop. You build Soul Shards with Shadow Bolt, spend them on Hand of Gul'dan to summon imps, your demons hand you Demonic Cores for free Demonbolts, and Summon Demonic Tyrant makes everything you summoned hit harder and live longer. Learn these five ideas and every priority list below will make sense.

1. Soul Shards are your currency. You hold up to 5. Shadow Bolt generates them. Hand of Gul'dan spends up to 3 and summons 3 Wild Imps. Sitting at 5 shards means new ones are thrown away, so never cap unless Tyrant is seconds away.
2. Demonic Core is your second currency. Your demons grant Demonic Core procs. Each one makes Demonbolt instant and stronger. You hold up to 4. Spend them at 2 or more, keep 1 in your pocket for movement, and save 2 to 3 for Tyrant.
3. Your demons are your damage. The Felguard is always out. Call Dreadstalkers brings two hounds (and the Vilefiend with them in this patch) on a short cooldown. Hand of Gul'dan brings imps. The more demons out, the more damage you do.
4. Summon Demonic Tyrant is the payoff. It makes every demon out at that moment hit harder and extends your Dreadstalkers. Right after it, Dominion of Argus opens a 15-second window where every Hand of Gul'dan you cast is worth extra demons. Walk in with 4 to 5 shards and 2 to 3 Cores and spend them all inside.
5. Secondary cooldowns feed the Tyrant. Grimoire: Imp Lord (2 minutes, lasts 20 seconds) goes just before Tyrant. Summon Doomguard (2 minutes, lasts 12 seconds) does not care about Tyrant, so press it on cooldown. Implosion blows up your imps for area damage and is worth pressing at 6 imps.

Easy Mode: five buttons, one order Mode 1

This is the whole rotation. Read the list top to bottom every time a cast finishes and press the first thing that is true. It uses the Diabolist build from the setup section. The Diabolist procs (Ruination and Infernal Bolt) replace buttons you already press, so you can ignore them for now and still be playing the right build.

1. Call Dreadstalkers if it is off cooldown. Press it the moment the fight starts and every time it lights up again.
2. Summon Demonic Tyrant if it is off cooldown, your Dreadstalkers are out, and you have 3 or more Soul Shards. Then cast Hand of Gul'dan as many times as you can.
3. Hand of Gul'dan if you have 3 or more Soul Shards. Spending at 3 keeps you from capping at 5.
4. Demonbolt if you have 2 or more Demonic Cores. It is instant with a Core, so you can press it while moving.
5. Shadow Bolt. When nothing above is true, cast this. It is your filler and your main shard builder.

That is it. Ignore Grimoire: Imp Lord, Summon Doomguard, Power Siphon and Implosion for now. They are a bonus, not the foundation.

The opener

When the raid leader's pull timer hits 4 seconds, start casting Shadow Bolt, then a second one. Then Call Dreadstalkers, Hand of Gul'dan if you have 3 shards, Summon Demonic Tyrant, and fall into the list above.

When you have to move

Press Demonbolt if a Core is up. Otherwise just move. Do not try to finish a Shadow Bolt while standing in something that will kill you. Your demons keep hitting while you run, which is the one luxury this spec has.

Pet

Summon the Felguard. It is not optional for Demonology: the rest of the spec is built around it, and your Tyrant attacks whatever the Felguard is hitting. It gives you Axe Toss, your interrupt and stun, which the raid leader will ask for. Leave Felstorm on autocast.

Intermediate Mode: three bonus buttons and a Tyrant setup Mode 2

Same skeleton as Easy Mode, with Grimoire: Imp Lord, Summon Doomguard and Power Siphon slotted in, plus the habit of walking into Tyrant with resources saved. Each one is worth a few percent of your damage, and together they are the gap between a passable warlock and a solid one.

1. Call Dreadstalkers on cooldown. You may hold it a few seconds so it is fresh when Tyrant comes, but never hold it long.
2. Grimoire: Imp Lord right before Tyrant whenever it is ready. It lasts 20 seconds and is a 2-minute cooldown, so it covers every other Tyrant.
3. Summon Demonic Tyrant when Dreadstalkers and Imp Lord are out and you have 4 to 5 shards and 2 to 3 Cores. Then Hand of Gul'dan, Demonbolt, Hand of Gul'dan, Hand of Gul'dan for the 15-second Dominion of Argus window.
4. Summon Doomguard on cooldown. It does not care about Tyrant, so never hold it.
5. Power Siphon when you have 2 or more Wild Imps out and 2 or fewer Cores. It eats two imps and hands you two Cores.
6. Hand of Gul'dan if you have 3 or more shards.
7. Demonbolt if you have 2 or more Cores.
8. Shadow Bolt.

The opener

Power Siphon about 5 seconds before the pull (you need imps out for it, so if you have none, cast two Shadow Bolts instead). Then Call Dreadstalkers, Summon Doomguard, Grimoire: Imp Lord, Shadow Bolt to 5 shards, Summon Demonic Tyrant with your on-use trinket and potion, then Hand of Gul'dan, Demonbolt, Hand of Gul'dan, Hand of Gul'dan. From there, use the list.

Implosion: your second target

Implosion pulls your Wild Imps to the target and explodes them for area damage. It is the cleave tool, and with the To Hell and Back talent it is even worth pressing on one target. The rule of thumb for two or more stacked targets:

• Wait until you have 6 imps out. Six is the maximum it consumes, so fewer is a waste.
• Have at least 2 Demonic Cores before you press it, so you have something to do while new imps arrive.
• Cast it just after the imps from your last Hand of Gul'dan have landed.
• Rebuild imps with Hand of Gul'dan and repeat.

Planning movement

Before the pull, ask the raid leader or read the boss guide for the two or three moments when everyone has to move. Walk into those moments with 2 Demonic Cores so you can fire instant Demonbolts while you run. Outside the 15 seconds after Tyrant you can move freely with Cores; inside them you need to stand still. Drop a Demonic Circle at your main spot so you can teleport back in one press.

Full Send Mode: the complete priority Mode 3

This is the Diabolist single-target list as the top guides write it, plus the habits that separate a 70th-percentile parse from a 95th. Nothing here is new. It is the Intermediate list with tighter timing and the two Diabolist procs added.

Single target

1. Call Dreadstalkers and Grimoire: Imp Lord before Summon Demonic Tyrant, with 4 to 5 shards and 2 to 3 Cores saved.
2. Call Dreadstalkers on cooldown.
3. Summon Doomguard on cooldown.
4. Power Siphon with 2 or more Wild Imps and 2 or fewer Cores.
5. Implosion with 6 Wild Imps, if talented.
6. Hand of Gul'dan, or Ruination when the proc is up, if you are about to overcap shards.
7. Infernal Bolt if you have fewer than 3 shards and the proc is up. It replaces your next Shadow Bolt and gives 3 shards.
8. Demonbolt with 2 or more Demonic Cores.
9. Hand of Gul'dan at 3 shards.
10. Shadow Bolt.

Setting up Tyrant

About 10 seconds before Tyrant comes back, stop spending at 3 shards and let yourself ride up to 5. Hold 2 to 3 Cores. Make sure Dreadstalkers will be fresh (hold them a few seconds if needed) and that Imp Lord is ready if it is that Tyrant's turn. Press Tyrant, then spend everything into Hand of Gul'dan during the 15-second Dominion of Argus window, using instant Demonbolts to refill shards between them. Method's rule: focus on where the next Tyrant will be, not the current one. Never cap for more than a GCD while pooling.

Diabolist procs

Ruination turns your next Hand of Gul'dan into a free one that still summons 3 imps. Infernal Bolt turns your next Shadow Bolt into one that gives 3 shards. Both come from the Diabolist demons you summon. Neither needs a new keybind; the button you already press changes. Use Ruination when you would otherwise cap, and Infernal Bolt when you are below 3 shards and need to reach a Hand of Gul'dan.

Demonic Core discipline

Cores cap at 4. Spend at 2 or more, but keep 1 for movement. Before Implosion, keep stacks low so new Cores have room to arrive. Before Tyrant, deliberately hold 2 to 3. If you are at 4 and about to gain another, the Demonbolt comes before everything else except a Dreadstalkers cast.

Lining up the burst window

On-use trinket, Potion of Recklessness, and racial all go into the Tyrant that also has Imp Lord. Ask the raid leader when Bloodlust is coming and, if it is within 20 seconds of a Tyrant, hold the setup for it. Maxroll notes that Tyrant updates its own haste a couple of seconds late, so press it a moment after Bloodlust lands rather than the same instant.

AoE (3 or more targets)

1. Call Dreadstalkers and Grimoire: Imp Lord before Summon Demonic Tyrant if the pack lives 20 seconds or more. If it dies faster, Method says do not press cooldowns at all.
2. Call Dreadstalkers on cooldown.
3. Implosion with 6 Wild Imps. At 4 or more targets, Implosion with 6 or more imps beats everything but Dreadstalkers.
4. Hand of Gul'dan or Ruination if about to overcap shards. It hits everything within 8 yards of the target.
5. Infernal Bolt if below 3 shards and the proc is up.
6. Demonbolt with 2 or more Cores. Spread Doom to targets that do not have it, if talented, using the mouseover macro.
7. Power Siphon with 2 or fewer Cores.
8. Hand of Gul'dan at 3 shards, then Shadow Bolt.

Two targets is still the Implosion game from Intermediate, not a change of build. The single-target list already includes it.

Fight-specific habits

Before a progression night, open the boss guide and write down three things: when adds spawn (plan an Implosion and whether a Tyrant fits), when the raid has to move (bank 2 Cores), and when Bloodlust is called (hold or drift Tyrant). Those three notes are worth more than any sim.

Talents, consumables and setup

Import one of these talent strings and the guide above matches your bars. Open the talent window, click Import, paste, and save as a loadout. Both are from Method's talents page, updated 13 Oct 2026 for patch 12.1.5.

For a boss with a long-lived second target, take the Mythic+ string: Method calls it their "bread and butter" for multi-target raid encounters. The talents that matter there are Implosion with To Hell and Back (imploded imps leave behind Imp Gang Bosses that cleave) and Doom with Summon Doomguard. Method also lists Soul Harvester builds for both single target and Mythic+ if you want to try the other hero tree later.

Stat priority

Method lists Intellect, then Critical Strike, then Haste and Mastery about equal, Versatility last. Kalamazi puts Haste first and Mastery last. Sources disagree, so once you are comfortable, run a Raidbots Top Gear sim with your own gear. Until then, take the higher item level piece.

Consumables checklist

Bring these to every raid. Half of them are provided by the raid, but a new raider should carry their own.

• Flask: Flask of the Shattered Sun
• Food: Spellfire Filet, or eat the raid feast
• Combat potion: Potion of Recklessness, one per pull
• Health potion: Silvermoon Health Potion
• Weapon oil: Thalassian Phoenix Oil
• Augment rune: Void-Touched Augment Rune
• Healthstone: create one before the pull, and drop a Soulwell for the raid
• Enchants: Mark of the Worldsoul (chest), Sunfire Silk Spellthread (legs), Eyes of the Eagle (rings), Jan'alai's Precision or Rite of the Hash'ey (weapon), Empowered Rune of Avoidance (head), Lynx's Dexterity (boots)

Addons that matter

BigWigs for boss timers, Method Raid Tools for raid notes, and a tracker for Soul Shards, Demonic Cores and your demon timers (Dreadstalkers, Imp Lord, Tyrant) such as Twintop's Resource Bar or a WeakAura. Method says the things worth tracking are shards, demon durations, demon cooldowns and your cast bar. Nothing else is required to start.

Macros

Put these on your bars. The first interrupts whatever you have set as focus, and falls back to your target if you have no focus. The second lets you Demonbolt whatever your mouse is over without changing target, which is how you spread Doom to adds. The third puts Shadowfury down at your cursor in one press.

#showtooltip
/cast [@focus, harm, nodead][] Axe Toss

#showtooltip Demonbolt
/cast [@mouseover, exists] Demonbolt; Demonbolt

#showtooltip
/cast [@cursor] Shadowfury

Your utility kit

Damage is only half the job. Raid leaders remember the warlock who interrupts, uses defensives, and drops a gateway, not the one who parses 5% higher. Cooldowns below are the base values. Talents shorten some of them, so trust your tooltip over this table.

Two habits to build now:

1. Set a focus target. Before the pull, target the add you are assigned to interrupt and press your focus keybind. The Axe Toss macro then works without ever leaving the boss.
2. Make Healthstones before every pull. The raid will ask for a Soulwell. Have it on a key.

Reading your logs and what to practice next

After each raid night, open your character on Warcraft Logs and spend five minutes on one boss. Pick the longest single-target fight. Check the five items from the logs section, then do the one drill below that matches your mode.

Three things to compare against a top log of the same boss (Warcraft Logs, Rankings tab, filter to Demonology):

1. Count their Hand of Gul'dan casts and yours. If theirs is 50% higher on a fight of the same length, you are capping or sitting on shards.
2. Count their Summon Demonic Tyrant casts and yours. The gap is almost always one missed cast at the start or end.
3. Look at their Deaths and yours. If they have zero and you do not, that is the whole gap.

The Venomous Abyss is the current Midnight Season 2 raid, with eight bosses from Nek'zali the Soulcoiler through Ula'tek. Read the Icy Veins page for each boss before the night you first see it, and write down the three notes from Full Send Mode: when adds come, when you move, when Lust is called.