On Demonic Circle and Shadowflame
Sorry it’s been so long since I’ve posted, folks. I’ve been stunlocked by finals, and my trinket was in the bank.
This took me longer than you might think.
I’ve reached level 80 some time ago. I leveled ridiculously fast because I was anxious for Demonic Circle. I was actually one of the first 80s on my server (I’m now on Dentarg. Free transfers!). In fact, I was the first Human Warlock to 80. No achievement for that though; there was already an 80 Gnome Warlock and an 80 Human. However, I was the first Human Warlock on my server to reach 80–I’ll take the silver medal. It’s all semantics anyway.
That said, I’ve reached 80, and I’ve fallen in love. With Demonic Circle.
Warlocks needed an escape mechanism and Blizzard acknowledged it, as Warlocks should not just tank melee classes. When Kalgan first teased the idea, people were excited. After all, Demonic Circle sounds good on paper. However, once we saw Demonic Circle’s tooltip, we were less than impressed. Our hopes were dashed when we saw the abysmal 40yd teleport range and the lack of stun-breaking on the teleport. As a result, throughout the beta, Warlocks complained that Demonic Circle was insufficient for escaping, given the drastically changed class mechanics. Yet, Blizzard refused to make any changes claiming that not many people have had the opportunity to try it out (they asked people to try it out in beta, and they didn’t like it, but Blizzard said it needed more exposure; I thought that was the point of beta testing–OH THE IRONY!)
So now Demonic Circle made it live, and I, though cautious, was somewhat excited because of the potential it has. Admittedly, I think Blizzard was right. Demonic Circle is underrated.
PvE
Warlocks complained that Demonic Circle offered nothing in PvE. This is because PvE players don’t use things if it isn’t a DPS or HPS increase (you know who you are).
I have found, however, that Demonic Circle is really useful in PvE for dodging attacks (and wipes). Take the Loken fight in Halls of Lightning for example. He begins casting a big arcane explosion-like AoE that requires the entire party to get out of range. I could just simply teleport back and keep DPSing while the rest of the party ran around. I was given more DPS time. Therefore, I did some more DPS. Suck it, PvE nerds.
The best PvE use for Demonic Circle I’ve found is in The Obsidian Sanctum during the Sartharion fight. At seemingly random intervals, a wall of lava will wash across the area that raid members need to dodge. Depending on the side, there will be an opening in the lava that the raid needs to run to. Because of our positioning, we always dodged the lava from the west side. But when the lava comes from the east, we needed to move to the center of the area. I just placed a circle there and teleported back to the center (interestingly enough, we used my circle as a marker for raid members to move to; +1 usefulness). So while the raid was moving, I was DPSing. All I lost was one global cooldown.
PvP
Before I give my review of Demonic Circle in PvP. I’d like to clarify that there are three kinds of PvP:
- Battlegrounds
- Arenas
- World PvP
Each type of PvP has its own circumstances, so advantages differ from location to location (except for Arenas, which is pure combat). So, let us look at Demonic Circle in each of the three types.
In Battlegrounds: Most effective for defense. It’s not hard to use there. You really just need to think ahead, and that’s easy because key battleground objectives are mostly stationary. In AB, you can easily place a circle away from the flag so you can escape. Then you can bandage and return, only to teleport back again. This is very effective, so long as you keep the enemy off the flag. It’s also really useful in WSG for holding the flag at your base. You just place a circle up top, and jump down when the enemy comes then teleport back up and eat/drink.
In Arenas: It’s hard to tell at this point. I’ve only done a handful of skirmishes with my Rogue friend. Thus far, it’s been very useful in all arenas, with the exception of Ogrimmar because you can’t place the circle on the lift (bullshit, by the way) and because the arena is relatively open and flat.
In World PvP: Overpowered. There, I said it. It’s OVERPOWERED in world PvP. When I first hit 80, the thing I wanted to do most was abuse Demonic Circle, so I did. I placed my circle atop the walls of Horde towns in various zones and dotted lowbies. Occasionally I’d jump down to incite melee, and then teleport back and laugh at the Warriors spinning around on the ground like 8 year olds with spastic achilles’ tendons. Since I can fly to places, it’s nice to put the circle in trees, on rocks, and especially on stumps.
Why I Like It
It’s just so much fun. Plain and simple. There is nothing more satisfying than knowing you’ve outsmarted your opponents. It does require foresight and careful planning, but when it works, it works.
It’s also very fun to undermine opponents’ CC tactics. As soon as I am Death Gripped, I teleport in the air and watch the stupid Death Knight sit around like a jackass while my DoTs melt his skull. Keep in mind that you can use it to teleport away from spells that require the opponent to be in front. If you teleport just before the cast finishes so that the caster needs to be facing you, you effectively dodge the spell. This works very well against Mages.
On top of the fun factor, Demonic Circle synergizes very well with other Warlock spells, namely Fear and Curse of Exhaustion. Curse of Exhaustion will buy you more time when you teleport. In addition, this is a great way to beat up melee. Since Fear actually moves enemies, it can help give you the time you need to distance yourself from your newly-placed circle (when you’re jumped).
The Complaints
The biggest complaints about Demonic Circle are as follows:
- Short range, which forces you to constantly recast it.
- It doesn’t break stuns.
- It requires foresight.
While I do feel the range is a bit short, I feel that it’s not that bad if you plan ahead properly. I see Warlocks on the forums calling for a 100yd range. That’s just ridiculous.
It is obnoxious that it doesn’t break stuns. With the trinket on cooldown, it’s significantly harder to beat Rogues (and I’m saving all my cloth for Tailoring; haven’t got the chance to make Frostweave Nets).
This spell works very well if you have moderate intelligence. Otherwise, you’ll find yourself never using it. If you know how to use it, it yields a tremendous payoff. Besides, if it was easy, we’d all be Mages.
Simple Fixes
As I said before, a 100yd range on this would be ridiculous. Something like 50-60yds is not ridiculous. It’s a little absurd how frequently I need to place the circle, especially since the teleport button doesn’t fade out when I’m out of range.
In addition to a range extension, Warlocks are asking for a stun break. While this certainly would not be an overpowered change, I also don’t think it’s that necessary. As we all know, when you’re getting stunlocked by a Rogue, you always trinket the Kidney Shot. Most Rogues leave you a split-second window between the Cheap Shot and the Kidney Shot. In this time, I usually try to drop an instant Howl of Terror. However, sometimes you really do need to escape. Spam that teleport button during the Cheap Shot. If you’re good, you can get it between the two stuns. Otherwise, trinket and then teleport.
So, therefore I ask Blizzard: Remove the global cooldown from the teleport. They did this for Hunters’ Disengage, claiming that it should feel like an escape mechanism when you need to get away. Teleport should feel like an escape mechanism. There’s nothing reactionary about it. You need to stop casting to use it, or wait 1.5 seconds where any number of CCs can hit you. On that note, everyone, please create the following macro:
/stopcasting
/cast Demonic Circle: Teleport
Demonic Circle would be that much better if the teleport was off the global cooldown. It’s nothing too fancy or overpowered. In fact, it makes sense.
Final Thoughts
I’m having a lot of fun with Demonic Circle. While others are dissatisfied, I am not. Good job Blizzard, you’re almost there. If you can tweak it a little bit, you can make it a staple for the Warlock class.
Oh, I almost forgot to discuss Shadowflame:
Shadowflame
Scary stuff, right?
But seriously, it’s atrocious. I only use it on other Warlocks in PvP so I don’t have to cry alone.
Yeah you have come over to the good side of the teleport gang! I personally have liked it ever since i heard of it. Once i heard it cannot break stuns i still liked it, a bit less, but it still seemed like a good spell. In SoTA i can put it up on one of the cannon towers, as soon as some1 charges me i teleport up and /laugh and dot up their face.
But yeah, welcome 2 the fun side of the gang =P.
Now where is Priests’ new escape ability? They need it even worse than warlocks did.
Also an instant conical aoe is never bad, particularly in pvp it’s godly for deastealthing rogues.
Using your trinket for kidney is often a bad idea. If you do you leave yourself open for being blinded.
Not that it matters, since we die in the span of a cheap shot anyways.
Yeah, that’s pretty much true. It comes down to when your trinket and whether or not you can squeeze casts in, really.
Oh, and I do agree that demonic circle is a little underrated. It’s particularly effective on blade’s edge arena. However, it is still far away from the real escape mechanism we need.
Mmm, you can place Demonic Circles in the Ogrimmar arena, you just need to wait till it goes up.
About circles, imo they’re totally life-changing for locks in all different specs
demo - ability to get enough distance for Meta Charge without having to fear
aff - easier kiting with curse of exhaustion
destro - finally a way to get some cast off against melees when succubus fails
So I spent some time doing Arena Skirmishes.. I’ve tried plenty of different builds. I pretty much got destroyed. I am not the best player, but certainly not the worst. Blizzard clearly has no understanding how to create a fair game. Its really not fun anymore unless you like to kill pre scripted bosses in PvE.
The all time classic was being killed in less than two seconds by a rogue while still in CS. I didnt even have time to trinket.
Warlocks are a dead class now. I’ve quit the game, Blizzard have created a piece of shit with this expansion. The burst damage is totally out of control.
LOLOLOLOLOL warlock dead class
well if ure running around with no resilience, good luck, you will get owned in less then 3 seconds, i had the same problem when i tried skirms as destro and no resi, then i combined my old pvp 70 gear and frostsavage one, gemmed resilience and now ive got 575 resi (double + 35 bonus from 2xfelweave and 2xdreadweave and around 18 k hp, also i specced demonology and i can tell you: locks are fine, except for prot warriors and death knights there arent many scary classes for me atm
if u cant get high enough resi for season start, all i can suggest is: be patient, wait till you get bg+arena gear (shouldnt take long as arena items will cost less points now) and youll do ok
in 1 think id agree tho: no resi cloth sucks, especially with all the melees running around in naxx gear and critting over 6 k ><
I said it before and it happened. I was in WSG and i summoned a demonic circle outside our base. Some tauren druid didnt care enough about the flag or anything, just to kill a warlock. So he stealthed at my demonic circle and even though i wasnt even holding the flag he tore me apart in seconds (usual thing). Only succesful use was sumoning the circle on the horde top floor and leaving my pet there, quickly grabing the flag and summoning out. Second time a rogue and two mages was guarding the flag and they cripled me in a sec while i received the usual message: Can’t do that while stanned. In PvE I only managed once to use it effectively with a boss in Violet Hold. Having “foresight” in pvp or pve is not a skill but pure luck. Someone mentioned though that the circle saves a lot of time between the AH and the mailbox in SW
I have 450res , 17k hp.. is it still okay to get dropped in a second?
To be fair 450 resil is not what it used to be.
Also to be fair, even with full deadly gear we will not reach the mitigation that 450 resil gave us at level 70 =/
Indeed.. Its becoming clear the game is not what it used to be either =(
In the time it took you to post that reply 463 warlocks were killed in the span of a cheapshot.
Interesting, and I’ll keep it in mind if I decide to use it in PvE. I don’t really PvP with my warlock.
Demon circle is awesome against Anub’rekhan in naxx. When you’re thrown into the air, you can circle back down and not loose much DPS time. I can throw out a Corruption and a siphon life and get halfway through haunt before any other dps are even on the ground again
I’ve also found it useful in HoL for Ionar, i keep it as far from the boss as i can, and port back the second he splits apart. I can avoid the lightning spider.. thingies normally, but it’s nice to have the extra breathing room.
And in AK, when we fight prince, we use the “run to the other side of the room” tatic, easy for me, lay down a circle where i am, run the first time he casts his fireballs, then port back the second. ezpz, no death, no dps lost.
Would’ve been nice if it had a stun-removal though. At least blizzard gave me a way to get back on my feet in PvE.
Man, you must be really close to the Worse warlock player, Ive been having fun at arenas and specially world PvP,man the only class that actually gives me some trouble, are rogues, but if im have my trinket up, they are so dead, just got haunt/SL spec, its really simple to play, but really effective, We dont ROCK the PvP world, but we deff put up a good fight, I know I do at least
Dude H have 400 res and 16,5k hp, and still I dont die that easy, your prob. just mad right now, and overreacting a little…
There’s also Demonic Circle Chicken to play. GO outside…cast DC and get on your flying mount. Hit spacebar and fly straight up as far as you can go. Dismount.
Wait for it…wait for it.
You’ve got to time it JUST right. If you hit it early you trigger the GCD and there’s not enough time to recover. But if you get it right you’re standing on the ground safe and sound.
[quote]Demonic Circle would be that much better if the teleport was off the global cooldown[/quote]
Yeah, except then you’d be able to drop it in mid-air, and very probably exploit all sorts of things.
Do you even think about what you’re saying before you write these articles?
I am surprised you don’t mention the use of demonic circle against Malygos, during the vortex. Not only do you get a chance to avoid all of the damage inflicted, but you can also deal some heavy dps, especially if there is a spark down.
What a negative site. Having played a warlock since wow started it surely has been a rollercoaster ride. Now more than ever do we really have to play right to win. That aside, it’s sad to see how quickly we die. However, im currently at 20k health + SL (not to forget healthstone) and 650 res 1800+ SP. Now I can actually take down DK’s and retpalas without too much effort. Caster classes is no problem, never was.
Teleport is awesome, and saves me many times. Obviously the only problem is that it won’t do you no good unless it’s summoned, so yet another prep. spell. Cast time is low however, so you can quickly get it up and move away from it. The only problem ofc, is vs. stunlocking classes. Yet, with my health + SL i usually outlive a rouge blowing his cooldowns. ATM the hardest class is good druids with sick DPS.
Oh yeah, I always was hardcore Destro in PVP. Now imo the only viable pvp spec is Haunt + SL. Destro/demon locks are so easy to kill, it’s sad. So my advise, learn deep afflic pvp.
For the Horde.