- Author: Kurathis
- Date: July 18, 2021
- Updated: July 18, 2021
- Expansion: TBC Classic
In this section we will be covering how Demonology Warlocks typically prioritize their stats.
- Spell Hit Rating
- Spell Damage/Power
- Spell Haste Rating
- Spell Critical Strike Rating
- Stamina
- Intellect
Spell Hit Rating
Just like Shamans, Priests, and Mages, Warlocks have a need to reach what is called their “Spell Hit Cap.” In order to achieve this, the Warlock must reach a total of 16% Hit, which is equivalent to 202 Spell Hit Rating.
Achieving this cap allows the Warlock to reduce the chance their spells will be resisted by 99% – there will always be at least a 1% chance for their spells to be resisted, this cannot be avoided, regardless of how much Spell Hit Rating you have.
Spell Damage/Power
While many refer to this as Spell Power, given the length of time it’s been referred to that in-game, it wasn’t Spell Power until the pre-patch for Wrath of the Lich King. So, when I say either Spell Damage or Spell Power, I’m referring to the same thing.
Increasing your spell damage will directly increase your damage output, affording you the opportunity to kill mobs faster. Thanks to Demonic Knowledge, having a minion active at all times will increase our spell damage, as well.
Spell Haste Rating
Spell Haste Rating won’t be a stat that we concern ourselves with greatly during Phase 1 because of the lack of gear available with this stat. With that being said, there is Quagmirran’s Eye that you can obtain from The Slave Pens on Heroic difficulty. As Spell Haste Rating becomes more common in later phases, this will be a stat that we keep our eyes open for.
Spell Critical Strike Rating
While the damage-over-time ticks cannot be critical strikes, your Shadow Bolt sure can, and with Improved Shadow Bolt, every critical strike achieved with Shadow Bolt will increase shadow damage dealt to the target.
When you achieve a critical strike, you cause 150% of normal damage.
Stamina
Because a Warlock is gifted with Life Tap, the need for Stamina comes before Intellect since as long as you have health remaining, you can always sacrifice it for some mana.
This can be considered a catch-22, though, since many healers will either heal you consistently while you use Life Tap, allowing for you to not worry too much about repercussions, or they will communicate with you whether they’re comfortable with you doing so, while some healers will throw maybe a HoT on you and that’s about it. The main concern here would be if a healer doesn’t heal you fully, and you’ve used Life Tap quite a bit, that if you happened to gain aggro, there’s a chance you’ll die because you don’t have the health to sustain an attack or two.
Thanks to Demonic Embrace increasing our total Stamina by 15% at 5/5 points, and Fel Stamina increasing our maximum health by 3%, we’re well on our way!
Intellect
The more mana that you have, the less you will have to use Life Tap. The reason it falls below Stamina, though, is simply that with more health, you’ll have a higher chance of surviving incoming damage since several bosses throughout the expansion inflict cleave/AoE damage which affects all players in a certain radius, and not just the tank(s).
Thanks to Fel Intellect, our maximum mana is increased by 3%.
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