Demonology Warlock DPS Gear and Best in Slot — The War Within (11.0.5)
On this page, you will find the best gear and best in slot items for your Demonology Warlock in World of Warcraft The War Within (11.0.5).
If you were looking for WotLK Classic content, please refer to our WotLK Classic Demonology Warlock gear and best in slot.
Gearing a Demonology Warlock
Welcome to our Gearing Page for Demonology Warlock; this section will cover everything you need to know about equipping your character correctly.
If you have a new piece of gear for which you need gems and enchant advice, you can find everything on our dedicated page below.
Best in Slot Gear
BiS Gear for Demonology Warlock
The War Within Season 1 Overall BiS List for Demonology Warlock
The following list contains the Best in Slot Gear for Demonology Warlock in The War Within Season 1 from all sources, including Raiding, Mythic+, Delves, The Great Vault, and Crafted.
Note that there is no such thing as a singular, all-encompassing "BiS". The best items vary per character and situation, and many items are essentially equivalent in terms of DPS, namely when we are just shuffling secondary stats around. I will list one "BiS" item per slot, but ultimately, BiS lists are not very practically useful and you should be simming your character to find out what gear to equip next. Nonetheless, there is a huge demand for this list, and thus, you can use the list below as a guideline as to what an endgame set of gear looks like.
| Slot | Item | Source/Note |
|---|---|---|
| Helm |  Devotee's Discarded Headdress (639) |
Rasha'nan |
| Neck |  Sureki Zealot's Insignia (639) |
Sikran in Nerub-ar Palace |
| Shoulder |  Hexflame Coven's Altar (639) |
Rasha'nan/Matrix Catalyst/Great Vault |
| Cloak |  Wings of Shattered Sorrow (639) |
Rasha'nan |
| Chest |  Hexflame Coven's Ritual Harness (639) |
Broodtwister Ovi'nax/Matrix Catalyst/Great Vault |
| Bracers |  Consecrated Cuffs (636) with  Writhing Armor Banding and Critical Strike + Versatility |
Crafted — Tailoring |
| Gloves |  Hexflame Coven's Sleeves (639) |
Sikran/Matrix Catalyst/Great Vault |
| Belt |  Burrower's Cinch (639) |
Ara-Kara, City of Echoes, or Great Vault |
| Legs |  Hexflame Coven's Leggings (639) |
Nexus Princess Ky'veza/Matrix Catalyst/Great Vault |
| Boots |  Assimilated Eggshell Slippers (639) |
Broodtwister Ovi'nax |
| Ring #1 |  Seal of the Poisoned Pact (639) |
Queen Ansurek in Nerub-ar Palace |
| Ring #2 |  Key to the Unseeming (639) |
The Bloodbound Horror in Nerub-ar Palace |
| Trinket #1 |  Ara-Kara Sacbrood (639) |
Ara-Kara, City of Echoes, or Great Vault |
| Trinket #2 |  Spymaster's Web (639) |
Silken Court in Nerub-ar Palace |
| Weapon |  Sovereign's Disdain (639) |
Queen Ansurek in Nerub-ar Palace |
| Off-Hand |  Vagabond's Torch (636) with  Darkmoon Sigil: Ascension and Critical Strike + Versatility |
Crafted — Inscription |
The War Within Season 1 Raid BiS List for Demonology Warlock
The following list contains the Best in Slot Gear for Demonology Warlock in The War Within Season 1 from Raiding, The Great Vault, and Crafted, and thus aimed at those who do not want to engage with Mythic+.
Note that there is no such thing as a singular, all-encompassing "BiS". The best items vary per character and situation, and many items are essentially equivalent in terms of DPS, namely when we are just shuffling secondary stats around. I will list one "BiS" item per slot, but ultimately, BiS lists are not very practically useful and you should be simming your character to find out what gear to equip next. Nonetheless, there is a huge demand for this list, and thus, you can use the list below as a guideline as to what an endgame set of gear looks like.
| Slot | Item | Source/Note |
|---|---|---|
| Helm | Devotee's Discarded Headdress (639) |
Rasha'nan in Nerub-ar Palace |
| Neck | Sureki Zealot's Insignia (639) |
Sikran in Nerub-ar Palace |
| Shoulder | Hexflame Coven's Altar (639) |
Rasha'nan/Matrix Catalyst/Great Vault |
| Cloak | Wings of Shattered Sorrow (639) |
Rasha'nan in Nerub-ar Palace |
| Chest | Hexflame Coven's Ritual Harness (639) |
Broodtwister Ovi'nax/Matrix Catalyst/Great Vault |
| Bracers | Consecrated Cuffs (636) with Writhing Armor Banding and Critical Strike + Versatility |
Crafted — Tailoring |
| Gloves | Hexflame Coven's Sleeves (639) |
Sikran/Matrix Catalyst/Great Vault |
| Belt |  Shattered Eye Cincture (639) |
The Bloodbound Horror in Nerub-ar Palace |
| Legs | Hexflame Coven's Leggings (639) |
Nexus Princess Ky'veza/Matrix Catalyst/Great Vault |
| Boots | Assimilated Eggshell Slippers (639) |
Broodtwister Ovi'nax |
| Ring #1 | Seal of the Poisoned Pact (639) |
Queen Ansurek in Nerub-ar Palace |
| Ring #2 | Key to the Unseeming (639) |
The Bloodbound Horror in Nerub-ar Palace |
| Trinket #1 |  Mad Queen's Mandate (639) |
Queen Ansurek in Nerub-ar Palace |
| Trinket #2 | Spymaster's Web (639) |
Silken Court in Nerub-ar Palace |
| Weapon | Sovereign's Disdain (639) |
Queen Ansurek in Nerub-ar Palace |
| Off-Hand | Vagabond's Torch (636) with Darkmoon Sigil: Ascension and Critical Strike + Versatility |
Crafted — Inscription |
The War Within Season 1 Mythic+ BiS List for Demonology Warlock
The following list contains the Best in Slot Gear for Demonology Warlock in The War Within Season 1 from Mythic+, The Great Vault, Crafted and is aimed towards those who do not have access to Raid drops.
Note that there is no such thing as a singular, all-encompassing "BiS". The best items vary per character and situation, and many items are essentially equivalent in terms of DPS, namely when we are just shuffling secondary stats around. I will list one "BiS" item per slot, but ultimately, BiS lists are not very practically useful and you should be simming your character to find out what gear to equip next. Nonetheless, there is a huge demand for this list, and thus, you can use the list below as a guideline as to what an endgame set of gear looks like.
| Slot | Item | Source/Note |
|---|---|---|
| Helm |  Abominable Visage (639) |
The Necrotic Wake, or Great Vault |
| Neck |  'Emergency Stop' Keychain (639) |
The Stonevault, or Great Vault |
| Shoulder | Hexflame Coven's Altar (639) |
Matrix Catalyst |
| Cloak |  Azureborne Cloak (639) |
Grim Batol, or Great Vault |
| Chest | Hexflame Coven's Ritual Harness (639) |
Matrix Catalyst |
| Bracers | Consecrated Cuffs (636) with Writhing Armor Banding and Critical Strike + Versatility |
Crafted — Tailoring |
| Gloves | Hexflame Coven's Sleeves (639) |
Matrix Catalyst |
| Belt | Burrower's Cinch (639) |
Ara-Kara, City of Echoes, or Great Vault |
| Legs | Hexflame Coven's Leggings (639) |
Matrix Catalyst |
| Boots |  Membranous Slippers (639) |
The Dawnbreaker, or Great Vault |
| Ring #1 |  Stitchflesh's Misplaced Signet (639) |
The Necrotic Wake, or Great Vault |
| Ring #2 |  Band of the Ancient Dredger (639) |
Siege of Boralus, or Great Vault |
| Trinket #1 | Ara-Kara Sacbrood (639) |
Ara-Kara, City of Echoes, or Great Vault |
| Trinket #2 |  Empowering Crystal of Anub'ikkaj (639) |
The Dawnbreaker, or Great Vault |
| Weapon |  Amarth's Spellblade (639) |
The Necrotic Wake, or Great Vault |
| Off-Hand | Vagabond's Torch (636) with Darkmoon Sigil: Ascension and Critical Strike + Versatility |
Crafted — Inscription |
Best Trinkets for Demonology Warlock in The War Within Season 1
Raiding Trinket Tier List for Demonology Warlock
This Trinket Tier List is biased towards single-target, as this tends to be the more relevant aspect of Raiding. In the case of Trinkets performing similarly in single-target, the option with AoE/Multitarget scaling will be ranked higher.
A "Tier" as defined by this list is around 0.5% DPS, meaning that S-Tier Trinkets are around 0.5% better than A-Tier Trinkets, and so on.
Any trinket not shown on this list is generally considered worse than all other trinkets available on this list.
S-Tier
- Spymaster's Web — undisputed best Trinket for all
situations. Has the upside of scaling very well in non-linear
encounter that requires pooling resources for specific phases.
A-Tier
- Mad Queen's Mandate.
- Ara-Kara Sacbrood — Very strong passive trinket.
High Speaker's Accretion — Best used 6 seconds
before 
Summon Demonic Tyrant.
B-Tier
- Empowering Crystal of Anub'ikkaj
Unbound Changeling — A strong passive trinket, although
slightly worse than Ara-Kara Sacbrood.
Ovi'nax's Mercurial Egg.
C-Tier
Satchel of Misbegotten Minions
Quickwick Candlestick. 
Aberrant Spellforge
Hadal's Nautilus
Mythic+ Trinket Tier List for Demonology Warlock
This Trinket Tier List is focused more on AoE damage, as a large portion of Mythic+ is AoE damage.
A "Tier" as defined by this list is around 0.5% DPS, meaning that S-Tier Trinkets are around 0.5% better than A-Tier Trinkets, and so on.
Any trinket not shown on this list is generally considered worse than all other trinkets available on this list.
S-Tier
- Spymaster's Web — undisputed best Trinket for all
situations. Has the upside of scaling very well in non-linear
encounter that requires pooling resources for specific phases.
A-Tier
- Ara-Kara Sacbrood — Very strong passive trinket.
- Mad Queen's Mandate.
B-Tier
- Empowering Crystal of Anub'ikkaj
- Unbound Changeling — A strong passive trinket, although
slightly worse than Ara-Kara Sacbrood.
- Ovi'nax's Mercurial Egg.
C-Tier
- Quickwick Candlestick
- Satchel of Misbegotten Minions
- Aberrant Spellforge
- High Speaker's Accretion — Best used 6 seconds
before Summon Demonic Tyrant.
Crafted Gear & Embellishments
Spark of Omens will remain the main limiting factor when crafting
high-end gear, as it can be acquired once every two weeks by combining
two 
Fractured Spark of Omens and 250 
Valorstones.
At the start of a tier, it will be possible to craft two pieces (the first from the initial quest and the second from the initial bi-weekly reward).
It is essential to understand that your crafting strategy depends heavily on the kind of progress and therefore drops available, the speed at which you progress through the content and whatever drop you can obtain early. As a result, there will not be a single best path, instead listed below will be some guidelines:
Darkmoon Sigil: Ascension on the offhand weapon
and Writhing Armor Banding is the overall best combination as it does
scale into multitarget as opposed to 
Elemental Focusing Lens.
The long-term solution is to directly craft both using sparks at the highest item level possible, but that does imply dropping a Mythic level Main hand through Mythic plus before entering in Mythic Raid the second week.
An alternative is to craft both main hand and offhand combo using sparks and leave wrists at 590 item level, which would offer a higher spike in power at the expense of requiring an additional spark in the long term, with the understanding that crafted main-hand weapons will need to be replaced by Mythic drops counterpart due to item level difference.
The War Within Season 1 Tier Set for Demonology Warlock
Wearing 2 and 4 pieces from the Rites of the Hexflame Coven set gives you the following bonuses:
Warlock Demonology Season 1 2pc: Your primary demon deals 5%
increased damage and your 
Shadow Bolt damage is increased by
50%.- Warlock Demonology Season 1 4pc: Shadow Bolt has a
chance to enrage your primary Felguard, increasing the damage of their
next
Legion Strike by 300%.
Both bonuses offer a passive damage increase, and as such, there is no alteration in terms of talent choices or playstyle.
It is important to note that achieving
the Warlock Demonology Season 1 4pc is a higher gain than having the
set on the sub-optimal slots.
That said, the ideal setup has the Head as the offset piece due a suboptimal stat distribution.
Evaluating Upgrades
The easiest and most sensible way to compare multiple items is to use Raidbots' Top Gear. Here, you can input an export from the Simcraft AddOn, select the items to compare, and it will find out which of the items are best. See below for a guide on how to sim yourself.
Trinket Simulations for Demonology Warlock
DISCLAIMER: sims are currently being developed; therefore, take the following charts with a grain of salt.
Single Target
Cleave
Changelog
- 21 Oct. 2024: Reviewed for Patch 11.0.5.
- 09 Sep. 2024: Added BiS lists for Season 1, updated trinket section.
- 21 Aug. 2024: Added Pre-Season BiS list section.
- 23 Jul. 2024: Reviewed for The War Within pre-patch.
- 07 May 2024: Reviewed for 10.2.7.
- 22 Apr. 2024: Updated for Season 4 launch.
- 19 Mar. 2024: Reviewed for 10.2.6.
- 15 Jan. 2024: Updated trinket section for Patch 10.2.5.
- 07 Nov. 2023: Embellishment recommendations updated after Undulating Sporecloak has been annihilated.
- 06 Nov. 2023: Updated Gear recommendations for Patch 10.2 and Season 3.
- 04 Sep. 2023: Reformat of the page with BiS tables and section updates.
- 10 Jul. 2023: Updated for Patch 10.1.5.
- 01 May 2023: Updated for Patch 10.1.
- 24 Mar. 2023: Updated Onyx Annulet section to account for live hotfixes.
- 20 Mar. 2023: Added patch 10.0.7 new ring section. .
- 24 Jan. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.0.5.
- 13 Dec. 2022: Updated Embellishment recommendations.
- 11 Dec. 2022: Updated for Season 1 launch.
- 28 Nov. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight launch.
- 25 Oct. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight pre-patch.
More Warlock Guides
Guides from Other Classes
Raid Guides
This guide has been written by Motoko, Warlock main since The Burning Crusade, co-admin in the Warlock Discord, and theorycrafter and contributor for LockOneStopShop.
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