“Lrn2Meta” is a 5 part post going over the Meta/Ruin PVE Warlock spec. My goal is to provide as much information as possible while avoiding confusion by breaking the guide up in to 5 seperate posts. Feel free to leave suggestions, questions, comments, etc. If you have information that I haven’t posted, I’ll be happy to add it in with your credit of course.

Part 1. Introduction
Part 2. The Spec
Part 3. Glyphs, Gems & Enchants
Part 4. The Rotations
Part 5. Metamorphosis & When to Use it.

Part 1. Introduction

In the many years that I’ve played a Warlock, Demonology has always been my favorite spec. It’s never really been the highest DPS spec and was often looked over as just a “leveling build” but it’s always been the most fun to me. There was something about the increased survivability & the micromanagement of the pets that was appealing and really set the class apart from our Mage counterparts. I also liked the idea of providing additional buffs/debuffs for my raid team which Demonology has been known for since the launch of WotLK.

This guide is coming from the prospective of an end-game raider who actually raids as Meta/Ruin so it’s not just a copy/paste of information found on other source websites. I’ve openly expressed my interest for this build in-game, in this blog and in person to RL friends that also play WoW and/or Warlocks but not everyone feels the same way. I’ve gotten many people to try the build and I’ll admit that not everyone liked it, but the beauty of the Warlock class is that all 3 talent trees and various hybrid builds work fine in end-game raiding so there are always other options.

As for Meta/Ruin, it’s a deep Demonology Felguard-based burst DPS build that provides solid DPS and some pretty fantastic raid buffs to your party. You’ll be spending a majority of your points in Demonology for some key talents (including Metamorphosis, which I’ll go over later) and only 15 points in Destruction to pick up 5/5 Ruin. The beauty of the spec, in my opinion, is the complexity and challenge of the rotation (when compared to our Destruction brethren) combined with the management of your pet as a large source of your DPS. This may be a turn off for some people, but it’s definitely the main reason I play this build.

The spec will be covered in more detail in Part 2, but I’d still like to go over the 2 namesake talents – Metamorphosis and Ruin.

Ruin is a 5 point Destruction talent that increases your critical strike damage bonus by 100%. In english, your crits will be much bigger. This only effects your spell crits, not your Felguard’s melee crits.

Metamorphosis is the 51-point Demonology talent that changes your Warlock in to a demon, increasing your damage output by 20% for 30 seconds. It also increases your armor by 600%, reduces the chance you’ll be critically hit by melee attacks by 6% and reduces the duration of stuns and snares by 50%. Those are mainly PVP bonuses but for PVE, all you need to know is that it boosts your damage by 20% for 30 seconds which kind of acts like a push-to-use trinket with other benefits.

Metamorphosis also grants access to new spells and abilities for the remainder of the duration but unfortunately there is only one or two useful features while the rest can be quite useless in PVE. Thankfully the useful abilities deliver in spades!

  • Demon Charge – Charges the target, stunning them for 3 seconds. You’ll be using Demon Charge to close the gap between you and a raid boss/AoE group to pop Immolation Aura but you won’t really concern yourself with the stun feature.
  • Shadow Cleave – Your next melee attack deals shadow damage to your target plus two additional nearby targets. The damage of this ability is lackluster and not worth the time in my opinion. If you’re in demon form to AoE you’re better off using Immolation Aura, Rain of Fire or, to a lesser extent, Shadowflame.
  • Challenging Howl – Causes any enemy target within 10 yards to attack you instead of their current target for 6 seconds. I don’t know about you but I don’t want 5 raid level mobs punching me in the face. Too situational to reserve a spot on my bar.
  • Immolation Aura – Deals fire damage every 1 second to all targets near you for 15 seconds. This ability is worth over 1k DPS on its own and should be used if at all possible. Combine this with Rain of Fire to lay some hardcore AoE beatdown or use it up close on a single target raid boss if the fight allows it.

I know the whole “here is a list of useless abilities and one or two cool things” might be discouraging in choosing the Meta/Ruin spec but it really is a lot of fun. You aren’t in demon form the whole time anyway, so don’t base your assumption on the usefulness of Metamorphosis by itself. The overall benefit to your DPS is well worth the whopping ONE talent point you spent on it.. trust me! It’s a great part of the build but in no way the backbone of the spec.

If you enjoy the Warlock as a pet class, want more of a challenge and don’t want to feel like some sort of ghetto Mage, then you should definitely give it a shot. It may not provide the highest burst damage like Destruction but offers a lot more survivability, less aggro spiking issues and the Felguard can take more of a beating over the fragile Imp. It’s a fair trade off to me.

So if you’re still on the fence about trying Demonology, ask yourself these questions..

Do you enjoy the Warlock as a “pet class”?
Demonology puts emphasis on the term “pet class” and takes some micromanagement to be successful. If your Felguard dies, you lose an average 900 DPS in good gear.. so not only will you be paying attention to cooldowns, positioning, etc., but you’ll also be paying close attention to your Felguard.

Are you OK with having slightly less DPS output in exchange for increased survivability and providing your fellow casters with increased spellpower and crit buffs?
I’ll be the first to admit that Demonology isn’t the highest DPS spec but I’ll also tell you that I’ve beaten equally geared Destruction or hybrid-specced Warlocks on the damage meters by considerable amounts at times. The spec is only as good as the player, so don’t let the “lower DPS” portion of the question fool you. Meta/Ruin has great damage output especially at the 35% mark for Decimation. The trade off for not having as high of a DPS output as Destruction is the increase in survivability, having a pet that can take more damage with a higher health pool and also the ability to provide your entire raid with a spellpower buff and crit debuff. Trust me, the casters in your raid will love you for it.

Are you good at managing timers and cooldowns?
Demonology isn’t as timer-intensive as Affliction by any means but requires you to keep track of your curses, Corruption and Immolate as well as timing Metamorphosis, Immolation Aura, Molten Core procs and Demonic Empowerment. You’ll always be busy.

Are you a fan of “high risk-high reward” specs?
Meta/Ruin is definitely one of these specs. If your Felguard dies, you lose a lot of DPS spending time resummoning him. If you use Metamorphosis at the wrong time, you blew your shot at shooting up the meters. If you can’t use Immolation Aura you won’t push as much DPS that fight as the other casters. If you don’t pay attention to Molten Core procs, you won’t push as much DPS, etc. You really have to be on your A-game to make this build work. A very good Demonology player is a huge asset to any raid group.

So overall.. what do you get out of Demonology?
Good burst damage that turns in to GREAT burst damage at the 35% mark. Increased survivability. A more durable pet with the Felguard which also provides over twice the DPS of a non-Demonology specced Warlock’s pet. You’ll also provide your fellow casters with a +spellpower buff that is raid-wide and your DPS casters with a +5% crit debuff in Improved Shadowbolt. You also get the chance to play a very interactive spec, which is pretty uncommon nowadays.

Now that we have a general idea of what Meta/Ruin is, next week we’ll head over to Part 2 for a deeper look at the spec!

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