Demonology Warlocks in TBC Classic build their entire gameplan around one thing: the demon pet. Affliction stacks DoTs. Destruction focuses on raw nuke damage. Demonology turns your summoned demon into a real damage contributor that scales directly with your stats, creating a loop where every gear upgrade makes both you and your pet hit harder.
Warlocks as a class are among the strongest PvE damage dealers in TBC. The debuff slot cap went from 16 in Classic to 40 in TBC, so you can actually use your full toolkit without worrying about pushing off important debuffs from other classes. Curse of Shadows got folded into Curse of the Elements too, which frees up Warlocks who previously maintained that curse to run Curse of Doom or Curse of Agony instead for extra damage. Across all phases, Warlocks remain dominant in raids and only get stronger as gear improves.
Demonology sits in the middle of the three Warlock specs for both damage and complexity. You manage fewer DoTs than Affliction, but you've got the added responsibility of keeping your demon alive and positioned correctly. Demonology Warlocks are less common in raids than Destruction, though the spec holds real advantages on specific encounters and can match or beat other specs under the right conditions.
Demon Scaling in TBC
Before getting into talent builds, it's worth understanding the core mechanic that makes Demonology viable: demon stat scaling. This system didn't exist in Classic WoW, and it fundamentally changes how you think about gearing.
Your demon inherits a portion of your stats in TBC. The scaling works like this:
This scaling feeds into a loop with the Demonic Knowledge talent, which converts a percentage of your demon's total Stamina and Intellect back into Spell Power for you. A practical example: picking up 10 Stamina from a new piece of gear gives your pet 3 Stamina. Demonic Knowledge converts 12% of that into Spell Power (roughly 0.36). That Spell Power then feeds back through the scaling formula into your demon's Attack Power and Spell Power (0.36 x 0.57 = ~0.205 AP, 0.36 x 0.15 = ~0.054 SP). The individual gains are small, but they stack across your entire stat sheet and mean every upgrade effectively counts twice.
The Classic WoW trinket Black Book is a big power spike for this build. Use it before a boss pull to buff your Felguard, then swap to a different trinket before combat starts. Your Felguard keeps the buff even after you unequip the trinket. Stack this with Strength and Agility scrolls applied directly to your demon for even more pre-pull damage.
Talent Builds Overview
Demonology has the least flexibility of the three Warlock specs when it comes to talent choices. Your major decision is between the Felguard pet and the Ruin talent from the Destruction tree. Both require enough talent points that you can't have them simultaneously.
This gives you two build variants that only differ by a handful of points:
- Felguard Build (1/41/19): Goes all the way down the Demonology tree to unlock Summon Felguard, the capstone ability, giving you the strongest and most durable demon available.
- Ruin Build / MD Ruin (1/39/21): Stops two points short of Summon Felguard and instead invests deeper into Destruction to pick up Ruin. This version uses the Succubus and leans more on your personal spell damage.
Both builds work for raiding. The Felguard build is more forgiving and performs well during early gearing and on movement-heavy encounters. The Ruin build pulls ahead in raw numbers but needs decent Spell Crit to function and adds the challenge of keeping a fragile Succubus alive through raid mechanics.
Felguard Build (1/41/19)
This is the standard Demonology build and the one most players should start with. It pushes to the bottom of the Demonology tree for Summon Felguard, which provides the best mix of AoE damage, single-target damage, and survivability among all your demons.
The Felguard shines especially on encounters with heavy movement or forced downtime (Magtheridon and Gruul the Dragonkiller are good examples), since your pet keeps dealing damage even when you can't cast. As your gear improves, the Felguard scales up alongside you through the stat inheritance system covered above.
Full Talent Point Allocation
- Improved Corruption, 1/5: One point drops Corruption's cast time from 2 seconds to 1.6 seconds, nearly matching the 1.5-second GCD. That's close enough that you can cast Corruption without losing real time before your next spell. Some Warlocks prefer 2 points here to bring the cast time even lower, which is perfectly fine. If you do take 2, the extra point usually comes out of Intensity in the Destruction tree.
- Improved Healthstone, 2/2: Stronger Healthstones for you and your group. The real value is a raid coordination trick: each talent rank produces a different Healthstone item, so multiple Warlocks with different investments (0/2, 1/2, and 2/2) can provide their group with three separate Healthstones that all stack in your bags. Raid groups frequently coordinate Warlock specs around this.
- Demonic Embrace, 5/5: Flat Stamina increase. The Spirit penalty doesn't matter for Warlocks since Spirit isn't a priority stat. Extra Stamina boosts your survivability, increases your effective mana through Life Tap, and feeds into the Demonic Knowledge loop for more Spell Power.
- Fel Intellect, 3/3: More Intellect for your demon, improving its mana pool and spell crit chance. Also feeds into Demonic Knowledge for bonus Spell Power.
- Fel Domination, 1/1: Cuts the cast time and mana cost of your next demon summon. This is your emergency button for getting the Felguard back in the fight after it dies. Paired with Master Summoner, it makes pet resummoning almost instant.
- Demonic Aegis, 3/3: Increases the effectiveness of Fel Armor and Demon Armor. Since you'll be running Fel Armor in all PvE content for the Spell Power bonus, this amplifies that benefit.
- Master Summoner, 2/2: Further reduces cast time and mana cost for summoning demons. Paired with Fel Domination for the rapid resummon combo.
- Unholy Power, 5/5: Direct damage increase for your demon's melee attacks. Boosts the Felguard's auto-attacks and Cleave damage. Mandatory.
- Demonic Sacrifice, 1/1: You won't actually sacrifice your pet in this build, but you need this talent to unlock Soul Link further down the tree. It's a gateway talent. There's some edge-case value if your pet dies and you can't resummon immediately, but that's rare.
- Mana Feed, 1/3: One point is all you need. Every time you Life Tap, your demon recovers mana too. With a single point, your Felguard can use Cleave on cooldown indefinitely without going dry. If your raid already provides mana-generating buffs (like Vampiric Touch from a Shadow Priest), you could potentially skip this, though 1 point is the safe pick.
- Master Demonologist, 5/5: Grants different passive bonuses depending on your active demon. With the Felguard out, both you and your pet get a damage increase. With the Succubus (relevant for the Ruin build), you gain 10% personal damage.
- Soul Link, 1/1: Increases damage dealt by both you and your demon by 5% and redirects a portion of incoming damage from you to your pet. The damage increase alone makes it mandatory, and the defensive component is what makes Demonology one of the tankier ranged DPS specs.
- Demonic Knowledge, 3/3: Grants bonus Spell Power equal to a percentage of your demon's total Stamina and Intellect. This ties the stat scaling loop together and makes every gear upgrade doubly effective.
- Demonic Tactics, 5/5: Increases crit chance for both you and your demon. Benefits your Shadow Bolt crits and your Felguard's melee crits equally. Passive DPS with no management required.
- Summon Felguard, 1/1: The capstone. Unlocks the Felguard, which is the highest-damage pet available and the centerpiece of this build. Strong single-target melee plus a Cleave for AoE, and significantly more durable than the Succubus or Imp.
- Improved Shadow Bolt, 5/5: When your Shadow Bolt crits, it applies a debuff that increases Shadow damage taken by the target. This benefits your entire raid's Shadow damage, and charges only get consumed by direct (non-periodic) damage, so your DoTs won't eat the stacks. Every Warlock spec takes this.
- Bane, 5/5: Reduces the cast time of Shadow Bolt and Immolate. Faster Shadow Bolts means more casts per fight, which is a straightforward DPS increase. Every Warlock spec needs this.
- Devastation, 5/5: Increases crit chance on your Destruction spells, including Shadow Bolt. More crits means more Improved Shadow Bolt procs and better uptime on that debuff. Mandatory across all specs.
- Shadowburn, 1/1: Instant-cast Shadow damage nuke that costs a Soul Shard. Good as a finisher when a target is about to die and you can't get another Shadow Bolt off in time, or for damage on the move. Don't use it on cooldown during normal DPS, because it consumes Improved Shadow Bolt charges and becomes a net DPS loss.
- Intensity, 1/2: Reduces spell pushback when you take damage. Useful on fights with heavy unavoidable raid damage that would otherwise delay your Shadow Bolt casts. One point is usually enough. If you put a second point into Improved Corruption, this is typically the point that gets dropped.
- Destructive Reach, 2/2: Increases the range of your Destruction spells. Not strictly mandatory, but the extra range gives you more positioning flexibility during movement-heavy phases.
Flex Points
The last 4 points in Destruction (Shadowburn, Intensity, Destructive Reach) are the most flexible part of this build. You can redistribute them based on preference or encounter needs. The one firm requirement is at least 1 point in Improved Corruption to bring its cast time near the GCD. Some common swaps:
- Move 1 point from Destructive Reach into a second point of Improved Corruption for a faster (eventually instant with enough Haste) Corruption cast
- Drop Shadowburn if you rarely use it and don't need a movement finisher
- Shift points between Intensity and Destructive Reach depending on whether you need pushback protection or extra range
Ruin Build / MD Ruin (1/39/21)
This build sacrifices the Felguard by stopping 2 points short of the Demonology capstone. Those saved points, plus a couple shifted from elsewhere in the tree, go into Destruction to reach Ruin, a talent that doubles the bonus damage from critical strikes on your Destruction spells.
Instead of the Felguard, you run the Succubus as your primary demon. Through Master Demonologist, the Succubus provides a 10% damage increase to you personally. Combined with Ruin's crit bonus, this pushes your Shadow Bolt damage considerably higher than the Felguard build can manage.
Why Run This Build?
The Ruin build sims higher than Felguard in pure DPS. It comes with two major caveats, though.
First, you need Spell Crit for Ruin to pull its weight. If you're not critting, the talent does nothing. In early gear with a low crit rate, the Felguard build will actually outperform Ruin because the Felguard's consistent pet damage doesn't depend on crit RNG. As your gear improves and crit climbs, Ruin starts pulling ahead.
Second, keeping the Succubus alive can be a real problem. She's significantly less durable than the Felguard. On fights with heavy AoE or mechanics that hit pets, you'll watch her die repeatedly, which strips away your 10% Master Demonologist damage bonus and forces you to waste time resummoning. Some encounters just aren't Succubus-friendly.
Because of this, many players start on the Felguard build and transition to Ruin once they've picked up enough Spell Crit gear and feel comfortable with pet management on the fights they're progressing on.
Talent Differences From Felguard Build
The Ruin build shares the same Affliction and core Demonology talents. The differences are:
- Demonology: 39 points instead of 41. You drop Summon Felguard (1 point) and one other point from the tree (typically Mana Feed, since the Succubus has lower mana demands than the Felguard's constant Cleave usage).
- Destruction: 21 points instead of 19. The extra 2 points reach Ruin (Tier 5 in Destruction), which doubles your crit bonus damage on Destruction spells. Your DoTs can't crit, so Ruin only affects direct damage (primarily Shadow Bolt), but since Shadow Bolt is your main filler, that's where the bulk of your damage increase comes from.
Don't let your Succubus use Lash of Pain. It consumes Improved Shadow Bolt charges on the target, which directly hurts your raid's Shadow DPS. Turn off Lash of Pain autocast and manage her accordingly.
Full Demonology Talent Tree
This section covers every talent in the Demonology tree with PvE raiding in mind, so you understand not just what to take but why certain picks get skipped.
Improved Healthstone (2 ranks): Increases healing from your Healthstones. The raid utility angle is the real draw. Each talent rank creates a distinct item, so if your group has Warlocks specced into different ranks (0/2, 1/2, 2/2), everyone can carry up to three different Healthstones that stack in bags. Raids regularly coordinate around this.
Improved Imp (3 ranks): Mainly buffs Blood Pact and increases Imp DPS. Demonology skips this because you aren't using the Imp as your primary pet. Affliction Warlocks sometimes pick it up since they run the Imp.
Demonic Embrace (5 ranks): Straight Stamina increase. Spirit reduction is irrelevant for Warlocks. The extra Stamina contributes to survivability, fuels your mana pool through Life Tap, and feeds the Demonic Knowledge scaling loop. Always take this.
Improved Health Funnel (2 ranks): Improves the efficiency of channeling your health into your pet. Important for PvP, but in PvE raids, spending GCDs healing your pet instead of doing damage is almost never the right call. Skip.
Improved Voidwalker (3 ranks): Buffs the Voidwalker's tanking abilities. You don't use the Voidwalker in any raid-viable Demonology build. Skip.
Fel Intellect (3 ranks): More demon Intellect means a bigger pet mana pool and feeds into Demonic Knowledge for bonus Spell Power. Always take this.
Fel Domination (1 rank): Makes your next demon summon instant and free. Your lifeline when your pet dies mid-fight. Combined with Master Summoner, you can get your Felguard back in seconds. Pick this up in every build.
Fel Stamina (3 ranks): Increases your demon's Stamina. More pet Stamina improves survivability and generates more Spell Power through Demonic Knowledge.
Demonic Aegis (3 ranks): Boosts Fel Armor and Demon Armor effectiveness. You should be running Fel Armor in all PvE content for the Spell Power, so this amplifies a buff you already have active. Take it.
Master Summoner (2 ranks): Reduces cast time and mana cost for demon summoning. Works with Fel Domination for the rapid resummon combo. Take it.
Unholy Power (5 ranks): Flat damage increase for your demon's melee attacks. Directly boosts Felguard auto-attacks and Cleave. Mandatory.
Improved Subjugate Demon (2 ranks): Reduces penalties and resistance chance when enslaving demons. Very narrow PvE applications, not worth the points. Skip.
Demonic Sacrifice (1 rank): Sacrificing your demon grants a buff based on which demon you sacrificed. Demonology doesn't actually use this ability because losing your pet kills all your scaling bonuses. You take this purely as a prerequisite to unlock Soul Link. A 1-point tax.
Master Conjuror (2 ranks): Buffs Firestone and Spellstone weapon enchants. Master Firestone can be decent for Fire Destruction builds as a pre-BiS option, but there simply aren't enough talent points to reach both this and the key Destruction talents simultaneously. Demonology skips it.
Mana Feed (3 ranks): Returns mana to your demon when you Life Tap. One point lets your Felguard Cleave on cooldown forever. The return scales with Life Tap usage, and since you'll be tapping frequently, a single rank handles everything. Extra ranks are unnecessary.
Master Demonologist (5 ranks): Provides different passive bonuses based on your active demon. Felguard gives both you and the pet a damage increase. Succubus gives you 10% personal damage (the reason the Ruin build uses her). Mandatory for both Demonology builds.
Demonic Resilience (3 ranks): Reduces damage your demon takes and damage transferred through Soul Link. Strong for PvP. In PvE, your points are better spent elsewhere, though a spare point here can help if your pet keeps dying on a particular encounter. Not part of the standard raid build.
Soul Link (1 rank): Two benefits in one. It increases all damage dealt by you and your demon by 5% (up from the base 3% in Classic) and redirects 20% of damage you take to your pet. The 5% damage increase alone makes it mandatory, and the damage redirection is why Demonology Warlocks are one of the more durable ranged DPS classes. Always take this.
Demonic Knowledge (3 ranks): Converts a percentage of your demon's total Stamina and Intellect into Spell Power for you. This is the talent that ties the entire Demonology stat scaling system together. As your gear improves, your pet's stats grow, and your Spell Power grows with them. Mandatory.
Demonic Tactics (5 ranks): Increases crit chance for both you and your demon. More crits means more Improved Shadow Bolt procs and bigger damage from Ruin (if you have it). Passive DPS with no conditions. Take all 5 points.
Summon Felguard (1 rank): The defining talent of the tree. The Felguard deals the most damage of any pet and has real AoE through Cleave. It's also substantially tankier than the Succubus or Imp, which means less time resummoning and more consistent uptime on your Master Demonologist and Soul Link bonuses. Taken in the Felguard build, skipped in the Ruin build.
Destruction Talents for Demonology
Even though Demonology dumps the majority of its points into the Demonology tree, the Destruction investment is critical. Here's what you're picking up and why.
Improved Shadow Bolt (5/5): Applies a Shadow vulnerability debuff when Shadow Bolt crits. This is a raid-wide DPS increase, not just personal. Charges are consumed only by direct damage, so your DoTs won't eat them. Every Warlock spec takes this, including Fire Destruction, because Shadow Bolt remains relevant against Fire-resistant targets.
Bane (5/5): Reduces the cast time of Shadow Bolt and Immolate. Faster Shadow Bolts directly translates to more casts per fight. Mandatory across all specs.
Devastation (5/5): Increases crit chance on Destruction spells, including Shadow Bolt. More crits means more Improved Shadow Bolt debuff uptime. Mandatory for every spec, including Affliction, since Shadow Bolt still makes up a significant chunk of their damage.
Shadowburn (1/1): Instant-cast Shadow nuke that costs a Soul Shard. Good as a finisher or for damage during movement. Don't spam it on cooldown during regular DPS phases because it eats Improved Shadow Bolt charges and becomes a net loss.
Intensity (1/2 or 2/2): Reduces spell pushback when you take damage. Value depends entirely on the encounter. On fights with heavy unavoidable damage, pushback protection keeps your Shadow Bolt casts from getting delayed. One point is usually enough.
Destructive Reach (2/2): Increases range on Destruction spells. Not mandatory, but extra range improves positioning options. Points here are interchangeable with Shadowburn and Intensity depending on what you need.
Affliction Talent for Demonology
Demonology invests only 1 point into Affliction, but it's a meaningful one.
Improved Corruption (1/5 or 2/5): Reduces Corruption's cast time. At 1 point, it drops from 2 seconds to 1.6 seconds, which is close enough to the 1.5-second GCD that the delay is barely noticeable. A second point brings it to 1.2 seconds, comfortably under the GCD, giving you more casting mobility. Going beyond 2 points eventually makes Corruption fully instant, mainly useful for movement-heavy encounters. For most Demonology Warlocks, 1 point is the recommended starting place.
Felguard vs. Ruin
The choice between these builds depends on your gear, the content you're running, and how comfortable you are with pet management.
- You're freshly 70 and still gearing up. The Felguard provides consistent damage that doesn't rely on high crit rates.
- You're progressing on encounters with heavy movement or downtime. The Felguard keeps dealing damage during phases where you can't cast.
- Pet survivability is a concern. The Felguard is significantly tankier than the Succubus.
- You want a simpler playstyle with less pet micro-management.
- You've built up decent Spell Crit from gear. Ruin's value scales directly with your crit rate, so low crit means low returns.
- You're running encounters where the Succubus can survive reliably. If she dies repeatedly, you lose your 10% damage buff and waste time resummoning.
- You're comfortable managing a fragile demon through raid mechanics.
Most players run the Felguard through early raiding (Karazhan, Gruul, Magtheridon), then evaluate whether to switch to Ruin once they've got enough Tier 4/5 gear to support a higher crit rate. The Felguard remains strong even in later phases if you prefer that playstyle.
Common Mistakes and Tips
Demonic Sacrifice is in your build only as a gateway to Soul Link. Sacrificing your demon removes all pet-scaling bonuses, kills your Mana Feed sustain, and eliminates the Soul Link damage buff. The only time this might make sense is if your pet is dead and you can't resummon for an extended period.
Keep your demon out of AoE. Position your Felguard so it doesn't stand in boss cleaves or AoE mechanics. A dead pet costs you significant DPS and forces a GCD on Fel Domination plus summoning time to bring it back.
Ask for buffs on your demon. Raid buffs applied to your pet (Mark of the Wild, Kings, etc.) increase its stats, which in turn increases your Spell Power through Demonic Knowledge. Raid leaders often overlook pet buffing, so be proactive about requesting it.
Use the Fel Domination dismiss/resummon trick. If your pet's health drops dangerously low, dismiss it and immediately resummon with Fel Domination. The new pet comes back at full health with all its buffs intact. This is faster than trying to heal it with Health Funnel.
Coordinate Healthstone ranks with other Warlocks. Since each rank of Improved Healthstone produces a unique item, talk with your fellow Warlocks about who takes 0/2, 1/2, and 2/2 so the raid can carry multiple Healthstones at once.
Life Tap during downtime. Tapping frequently isn't just good for your mana. It feeds mana to your Felguard through Mana Feed, keeping Cleave active on cooldown. Try to Life Tap during movement phases when you can't cast Shadow Bolt anyway.