Demonology in October 2011

Ok, as many of you know, I not only don't play alts (yes, I levelled up my DK, but that's only so I have a slave for tailoring/enchanting purposes), I don't even play other specs beyond a one month flirtation with affliction in Wrath and several different PVP specs--that were all destro.  I'm a destro lock and only a destro lock.

That said, when Cacc posted the recent dps numbers of different specs, it made me wonder why those numbers were the way they are.  I went to the forums.  The Warlocks Den is great.  What I discovered is that currently Demo locks can really benefit from stacking mastery of all things.  A lot of the key revolves around a certain trinket that I initially ignored....the moonwell chalice (sorry I'm not competent enough to imbed the wowhead link....if anyone can, feel free to edit that in).  http://www.wowhead.com/item=70142/moonwell-chalice  You buy this from the moonwell vendor you unlock with the firelands dailies.

What that does, besides nice INT, is an on use +1700 mastery for 20 seconds.  For demonology, mastery is what raises damage when in demon form.  Also, it vastly affects the doomguard's damage and, of course, the damage of your summoned demon (which should be the felpuppy for single target).  Also there are increasing multipliers...some complicated math. 

So, what demon locks are doing in boss fights is clicking the moonwell, wait a second, click meta, then summon the doomguard and the dps meter spins and spins.  You have to be careful not to run far from the moonwell or you lose the bonus and don't get it back if you come back to it. 

The other thing of note is that this certainly won't last forever.  No one knows what Blizz will do with mastery and demons, but it looks like at least the doomguard is going to be brutally nerfed.  The tier 13 set bonus is INSANE for demonology (longer time for doomguard) if all things were to remain equal, to a point where warlocks would have to either be demonology or not raid. 

I've been testing this out.  I specced demonology and have run about 4 or 5 zeroics.  No raiding yet.  My dps isn't really better other than the very nice AOE (felguard's whirlwind thing and hellfire--where nicely you can move while channelling it), but that's mostly because of my unfamiliarity with the rotation.  The spec is very simple....10 in destro and everything else in demon is universally agreed upon.  The rotation is pretty simple as well.