Guide

Why Spec Metamorphosis?

The driving force behind the growing popularity of our Demonology tree is the incredible scaling of our Demonic Pact talent. While this buff does not stack with the Elemental Shaman's Totem of Wrath, its ability to scale with gear makes it quickly become a much stronger raid buff. A Warlock with 2800 raid buffed spell power can provide the same amount of bonus spell power that Totem of Wrath does. As we get deeper into the expansion, the relative strength of Demonic Pact only grows (until Blizzard gets around to fixing the imbalance, which I believe is on the "to do list" for Cataclysm).

Talents and Glyphs

The build that I linked above is a very typical Metamorphosis build. You will be looking to use your Spellstone, which will provide a very healthy boost to your haste thanks to Master Conjuror. Your Felguard shouldn't really run into any mana issues, so Mana Feed is not needed. I recommend getting Master Summoner and 2/2 Fel Synergy simply because your Felguard is so important. Ideally, you won't find yourself needing to resummon him, but having 2/2 Master Summoner as well as Fel Dom comes in very handy when you do. Should you wish to drop points for Improved Healthstone, Master Summoner would be a good choice to drop.

As for glyphs, the most commonly used at this point are Felguard, Metamorphosis, and Life Tap. Your Felguard is a very significant portion of your dps as this spec. Metamorphosis is by far your strongest cooldown. Not only does it drastically increase your damage, but it also allows you to use the incredibly strong Immolation Aura. The Life Tap Glyph has become a must-have for all of our specs, perhaps Metamorphosis most of all. Again, the goal of speccing Metamorphosis is to provide your raid with as much spell power as possible through Demonic Pact, so naturally anything that boosts your spell power will be beneficial.

Gearing

The Metamorphosis spec differs from our Affliction and Destruction specs for one main reason: when you spec Metamorphosis, IT'S NOT ABOUT YOU! Your main purpose is to provide an incredible raid buff. Demonic Pact is great for your dps casters as well as your healers. The gains will outweigh your personal dps loss in a 25 man raid.

Because of this, your gearing priorities will be slightly different. You are really looking to boost your spell power as high as possible. The higher your spell power is, the more spell power you provide for the raid via Demonic Pact. In general, I recommend prioritizing hit > spell power > spirit > haste > crit. You typically will not need to worry about stacking crit to increase Demonic Pact uptime, especially if you have our 2 piece tier 9 set bonus. Due to Fel Armor and the Glyph of Life Tap, spirit is an incredibly strong stat for this spec. Haste is a personal dps stat, which makes it lose appeal in light of the fact that the real purpose of speccing Metamorphosis is to provide an incredibly strong raid buff.

With that said, I will add a disclaimer here. With the adaptability provided by dual specs as well as the varying strength of certain specs on specific encounters, you need not feel "locked in" to priorities like this (no matter what spec we are talking about). For example, I don't necessarily follow what would be considered "ideal" gemming for Metamorphosis. Nor do I follow what would be considered "ideal" gemming for Destruction. The reason is that I play all 3 specs fairly regularly, and each spec has its own stat priorities. If you feel that you will be doing quite a bit of spec swapping, maybe you don't want to change gems from 12 spell power 10 haste to 23 spell power. Unless you are in a situation in which you need every last point of dps, losing a few points of dps to keep your adaptability should be just fine.

Because you do not pick up Suppression with this build, you will be looking to gear for 14% hit if you play Horde or 13% if you play Alliance, with the remaining 3-4% coming from raid buffs.

What to do Against Bosses

So you're specced and ready to go... now what?

If there is no magic damage debuff in your raid (such as Ebon Plague or Earth and Moon), you will want to be using Curse of Elements. Otherwise, you'll be looking to use Curse of Doom. In addition to that, you will want to keep Immolate and Corruption up on your targets. As long as none of these dots need to be refreshed, your filler will be Shadow Bolt. Because of this, the "rotation" for Metamorphosis itself is rather simple.

The complexity of the spec comes in when you begin trying to maximize your cooldown usage. The Nemesis talent makes your Demonic Empowerment and Metamorphosis abilities have some rather strange cooldowns. In general, you will want to use Demonic Empowerment every time it is up. The same applies to Metamorphosis (with some exceptions which will be covered later). While Metamorphosis is active, you will want to be sure to be in melee range of the boss so that you can take advantage of the Immolation Aura. I'll go over some helpful mobility tricks later on in this guide. To begin with, focus on maintaining the dots as mentioned above and using these abilities as soon as they are off cooldown.

If you find yourself having trouble tracking these cooldowns, I recommend doing one of two things. Either get a mod to track cooldowns or use a bar mod to place them together in a convenient location where you can check if they are up at a quick glance. Look into some various cooldown tracking options and find one that is to your liking. As with most things, there's no "golden rule" when it comes to ui mods. Whatever you are most comfortable with is your best bet.

The spec gains further complexity once bosses reach 35% hp. At this point, the Decimation talent provides a healthy boost to your dps via its "execute-like" mechanic. The current conventional wisdom is that at this point you will want to focus on maintaining your Immolate dot but can drop the others.

The really interesting part of the spec comes in with trying to reach a 1:1 ratio of Shadow Bolts to Soul Fires. Weaving Soul Fires with Shadow Bolts takes some practice. You do not gain the Decimation buff until your Shadow Bolt hits the target, so you have to take the travel time of the spell into account. Because of this, you will want to try to establish your max range and cast from there. As such, your Immolation Aura is no longer worth using. While Metamorphosis is up and the boss is sub 35%, you should be focusing on your Soul Fire weaving from max range instead of getting in melee range for your Immolation Aura.

The cast sequence that you are striving for sub 35% should look something like this: Shadow Bolt --> Shadow Bolt --> Soul Fire --> Shadow Bolt --> Soul Fire --> Shadow Bolt --> Soul Fire, etc. While the first Shadow Bolt is in the air, you are casting your second one. By the time your second has finished, the first has hit and you have gained the Decimation Buff. Your Soul Fire casts while the second Shadow Bolt is in the air and you then being casting your third Shadow Bolt. While casting that, your 2nd Shadow Bolt hits the boss and applies the Decimation buff. This cycle repeats.

It can be rather complex to picture, so here's another breakdown: SB1 --> SB2 SB1 hits boss --> SF1 --> SB3 SB2 hits boss --> SF2 --> SB4 SB3 hits boss --> SF3, etc. The italicized portions represent what happens while you're busy casting another spell. The reason that you want to get max range is so that your fast Soul Fire cast can actually finish *while* the previous Shadow Bolt is in the air. This uses your Decimation buff before that Shadow Bolt hits the boss and reapplies it. Thus you begin with 2 Shadow Bolts, but are then able to alternate between Shadow Bolt and Soul Fire at a 1:1 ratio. This can be very difficult to do. You should not expect it to happen, but rather it should be something that you always strive to come as close to achieving as possible.

Suddenly what started out as a rather simple spec can quickly become nightmarish when the boss hits 35% hp! The only things that will make this easier are gaining a good understanding of the Shadow Bolt / Soul Fire interaction I described above and lots and lots of practice. Your best friend might be a Target Dummy for a while.

Earlier I mentioned some exceptional circumstances that might change how you use your Metamorphosis cooldown. Like most abilities, you will find ways to adapt this to specific fights. For example, you may want the buff active for dps'ing shields on the Twin Valkyrs. In this case, you'd save it for specific times rather than using it on every cooldown. Perhaps the boss has some sort of mechanic that is very unfriendly to casters standing in melee range, such as those of Gormok the Impaler, Icehowl, or the Twin Jormungars (who doesn't love aoe knockback sweeps?). Maybe you want to just save the cooldown for when Icehowl charges a wall and gets stunned. Once again, don't be afraid to adapt when necessary.

Love your FG!

In addition to being a large chunk of your dps, your Felguard is also pretty much your best friend when you're playing this spec. No Felguard means no Demonic Pact. Your Felguard also allows you to be Soul Linked to it, which you should be at all times. The healing provided by the Fel Synergy talent will almost always be enough to keep your pet alive, and you have Fel Domination for those rare times that something happens to the big guy.

Additionally, you can use Spiced Mammoth Treats as an extra buff to gain a little bit more dps (who knew pet food wasn't just for Hunters). For farm content this can be more trouble than it's worth, but for progression every little bit can help. Thanks to Marmion in < Babbsack> (EU) for noticing that I had overlooked these details when I wrote this.

Tips, Tricks, and Bonus Points

Once you feel comfortable with the basics, it's time to look for ways to maximize your dps and your usage of abilities.

One of the things that I dislike about the spec is that it makes us walk the line between being a ranged caster and a "melee caster" due to Immolation Aura. As such, mobility into and out of melee range is the first point I'll address. I recommend getting comfortable using your Demon Charge ability (which is granted by your demon form when you use Metamorphosis). You can find it in your spellbook once you've specced Metamorphosis and drag it onto your bars from there. It will allow you to quickly transition from casting from afar to being in range to use your Immolation Aura.

To move back away from the boss, you will want to do one of two things. Either drop your Teleport Circle where you'd like to move back to when the fight starts and use a gcd to teleport, or slowly inch your way back out as your instant cast spells come up in your rotation. Doing so would mean taking incremental steps as you're on gcd from refreshing something like Corruption, Curse of Doom, or casting Life Tap.

Another thing you'll want to get used to is refreshing the buff from your Glyph of Life Tap before you use Metamorphosis. With the Glyph of Metamorphosis, your demon form will last for 36 seconds, and the Glyph of Life Tap buff lasts 40 seconds. You don't really want to spend a gcd casting Life Tap while your strongest cooldown is active unless you absolutely have to.

As I mentioned earlier, getting a good Soul Fire weave going is probably the most challenging aspect of this spec (this challenge will be removed with the patch). For now, I recommend getting something like Power Auras or using a buff mod to make it very easy to tell when you have the Decimation buff active and when you don't. There's nothing that sucks quite as much as starting a Soul Fire cast only to realize that you didn't have the Decimation buff up and are now stuck casting a full length Soul Fire that will also cost a Soul Shard.

Even if you do feel comfortable with your Soul Fire weave, you still need to think about refreshing dots (at least Immolate regularly, and sometimes even Curse of Doom) while maintaining your weave. To maximize your dps sub 35%, I recommend training yourself to refresh things and Life Tap as needed immediately AFTER FINISHING A SOUL FIRE cast. This will allow you to get right back to your 1:1 weave immediately after rather than having to start all over by casting 2 Shadow Bolts and then starting a 1:1 rotation.

Here's a breakdown of why this is best. Let's assume you've already started your 1:1 rotation from max range. This means that you will have your Decimation buff up every time you're channeling a Shadow Bolt cast. If you refresh Immolate or use an instant cast after finishing a Shadow Bolt, that Shadow Bolt will land on the boss and refresh your unused Decimation buff. You will then either need to cast another Shadow Bolt so that your Decimation buff is applied again after your next Soul Fire, or you will cast a Soul Fire and then be left without a Shadow Bolt in the air to reapply Decimation. This means that you will then have to cast 2 Shadow Bolts in a row before starting your 1:1 rotation again. Either way, you cast 2 Shadow Bolts in a row.

If you refresh your Immolate and use instants immediately after a Soul Fire cast however, you effectively just delay starting your next Shadow Bolt. What would have looked like Soul Fire --> Shadow Bolt previous Shadow Bolt lands and procs Decimation --> Soul Fire will instead look like Soul Fire --> Immolate / Life Tap / Curse of Doom / whatever previous Shadow Bolt lands --> Shadow Bolt --> Soul Fire. Again, the italicized portions represent what happens while you are casting or on gcd. Instead of having to re-establish your Soul Fire weave by chaining 2 Shadow Bolts like you would if you refreshed Immolate after a Shadow Bolt cast, this just inserts a temporary delay into your weave without breaking it. After that delay, you go right back to your 1:1 ratio.

One "fun" ability that your demon form gives you is Challenging Howl. I shouldn't have to point out the inherent risk here and the inevitable gib factors, but that doesn't mean that you can't have some fun with it on trash or farm content from time to time, right?

And the last "bonus" challenge that I will leave you with is one that is guaranteed to provide some laughs. Metamorphosis is certainly not an ideal spec for General Vezax hard mode, but you can use it for that fight. If your guild uses an add-on to announce Shadow Crash (such as Big Wigs' "Shadow Crash Say" option or DBM's yell), I have a nice challenge for you. Try doing the fight as Demonology until you get targeted for a Shadow Crash while in your demon form. The result should be pretty hilarious. (Spoiler: while in demon form, everything that you say comes out in Demonic. This means that people will see Demonic jargon instead of "Shadow Crash on me!!!" or what have you). I won't be held responsible for any ensuing wipes. =D

Some Concluding Remarks

It is my hope that anyone who read this article was able to find something helpful in it. Metamorphosis is an increasingly popular spec (and for high-end raiding it is really an essential spec for 1 Warlock at this point). While the patch will bring some major changes to the spec, it does not change the fact that many Warlocks currently playing it (or even looking to play it after 3.3) should be able to get something out of this guide while we all wait for the patch. Like I said earlier, I do plan to update this once the patch goes live.

I would again like to stress that you should always be looking for ways to play any spec that feel comfortable to you. This will not only tend to result in you doing your best dps, but also in you enjoying this game the most. Rather than looking to change your play style to match a spec, consider how you can adapt that spec to best match your play style (those on the bleeding edge of progression might not always have this luxury though).

Experiment with the spec a little bit and try some of the pointers I gave. My list is by no means exhaustive, and I'm always open to comments and input. I'll gladly respond to questions as I can or update this article as people point out any mistakes I may have made. I look forward to revising this for 3.3 and hope that it either helps introduce people to the build or provides them the information that they need to raise their play to the next level. Enjoy!

Edit this article: Demonology and You

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Audience

I've used this strategy to level a warlock in almost best-in-slot T6, and a warlock who didn't even have BoA gear for the first two levels and was in TBC greens.

Guide

Introduction

I put together a video to illustrate what is definitely my favorite way to level in Wrath:

http://warcraftmovies.com/movieview.php?id=89547

While TBC leveling was strong with a healer, just casting instant-cast dots and using siphon life, along with instant Howl of Terror, Wrath of the Lich King gives us some very very nice tools as locks to level.

Talent Points

When you hit 71, this is the spec you want: Warlock: 21/41/0

(note: Glyphs have changed since I leveled, I'm not actually sure which is better, the felguard glyph or CoA.)

You're building towards this level 80 spec: Warlock: 30/41/0

One of the nice things about this spec is that each talent point after 71 actually increases your dps -- not something warlocks are used to in their trees, which are so focused around a handful of "heavy lifting" talents and tons of filler or situational talents.

Mechanics/Spell Changes

A couple key things happened that make this work appallingly well:

Level 71

Obviously. You couldn't pick up both felguard and siphon life before.

Fel Synergy

Heals your pet for 15% of the damage you deal.

Basically, it keeps your pet at full health while he's mitigating 5% of the damage done to you and tanking a mob or two along the way.

Fel Armor change

Well, it used to be 30% in-combat mana regen from spirit. Nice for raiding, but actually terrible for leveling.

The good news is that while its current version (+2% of your health every 5 seconds) is bad for raiding, it's great for leveling and provides another trickle-heal.

Spell pushback changes

Before you couldn't get a howl of terror off with 5 mobs beating on you. Now you can, because spell pushback is capped at two interrupts, with a max of one second pushback. Hello Howl of Terror! Now you actually can use your AE Fear without having to talent it.

This means an AE-dotting spec that isn't deep affliction is actually doable.

Spell casting and spell channeling pushback has been changed to the following:

• When casting a spell:
  • The first and second hit will add .5 secs each to the cast time.
  • All hits after the second will have no effect.
• When channeling a spell:
  • The first and second hit reduces current duration by 25% of total duration each.
  • All hits after the second will have no effect

Gear

Two piece T6 definitely helps: the healing from corruption ticks lets you postpone bandaging for a bit longer.

The BT exalted warlock ashtongue trinket is actually useful as well: Ashtongue Talisman of Shadows (thanks to Nihilithak on Ner'zhul for that reminder!)

Outside of that, while more +dmg and haste is good, you don't have to be geared to the teeth -- just pull what you can handle and when (not if!) you die, laugh as you run back from the GY, knowing that an awful lot of mobs killed you.

Crit gear isn't useful. Spirit would be (scaling lifetap, and +dmg from the spirit), so don't be afraid to swap out some of your current pieces for dmg/spirit gear as you level up, particularly if it means you're shedding "useless" crit.

Elites

You can solo almost every group quest in Wrath. Just use your voidwalker instead of felguard if you need to and healthfunnel. Throw dots up as you have gcd's available (make sure you use siphon life to offset the health loss from health funnel), use shadow bolt if it's an easy quest.

Use soulshatter if you're out-aggroing your pet.

Tips

I found some useful tips as I was leveling:

Don't pull one when you can pull four

Killing a single mob is slow for you. Only need one other mob for a quest but there's five around him? Just kill them all, you'll appreciate it later.

Don't eat/drink; don't stand and bandage

Stop before you're at 10% health and mana. I took breaks around 50% or so, sent my pet off to hit something I had dotted, lifetapped down, and then bandaged back to full health/mana and kept moving.

Watch your distance

Pet poofing/mob leashing is very much a risk here. Don't send your pet at a mob on the edge of your pull: send him somewhere in the middle and pull the edge mobs to the middle.

Lifetap early

One mistake I made at the start was waiting until I got low to lifetap. Why? I have no idea, I never do that in raids or groups...

Dot, dot, dot, (lifetap), dot, dot, dot (lifetap) is a great way to start out. That maximizes the trickle healing you're getting from siphon life and Fel Armor.

Why not full Affliction?

You just don't gain enough, in my opinion, to go deep affliction versus 41 demo.

You can't use the new dots you get, they all have cast times (UA/Haunt). You don't need instant howl of terror anymore. Eradication is of minimal usefulness here, and can only proc once every 30 seconds. Death's embrace doesn't apply, nor does everlasting affliction.

Pandemic is good, yes, but as you level to 80 your crit rate will be cut in half -- so it becomes less valuable as you level (although it will be good once you get into raid gear again and get raid buffs, of course.)

About the only thing you're missing is being able to pick up Shadow Mastery -- +10% dot damage. It's nice, but you can start building points into that starting at 72/73.

Compare that to getting 10% more health (I don't die tons when I do this, but the health is nice since Fel Armor works on a percentage basis), having a pet tank (nice for medding up, nice for keeping one mob off you, nice for group quests), and shedding 5% of the damage done to you via soul link.

Plus, the demo tree gives you more raw +dmg -- affliction just doesn't boost your existing dots (past the points we already have in there) that much other than SM. Demo brings demonic aegis and demonic knowledge, both of which go some ways to making up for not getting SM as early.

Where this won't work

If your server is too crowded at WotLK launch, you might end up very frustrated. You definitely need a fair number of mobs to pull this off, as it's weak on single-target dps (killing four is only a bit slower than killing one, not just because four is fast: it's also because one is slow.)

If you just can't ever get enough mobs to make it worthwhile, respec to demo/destro and just level that way.

Edit this article: Leveling a Warlock in Wrath: SL/FG

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