If you main a Demonology Warlock in World of Warcraft, the Curse of Ula’tek patch has quietly rewritten one of the oldest rules of your spec. The Felguard, the demon that has defined Demonology since The Burning Crusade, is no longer the default pick. Right now the strongest choices are the Succubus for raw damage and the Felhunter for faster interrupts and utility.
What actually changed
The shift comes from the numeric pass Warlock minions received in patch 12.1. The buffs were anything but even:
- Succubus and Felhunter: roughly 350% more damage
- Felguard: only about 20% more damage
The result is that the Felguard now deals less damage than the Succubus, with the gap sitting somewhere between 0.6% and 2%. Against the Felhunter it loses on utility instead, because the Felhunter brings noticeably faster kicks (interrupts) to the table.
The talent tree makes it worse
The pet damage numbers are only half the story. Because players are skipping the Felguard node on the tree entirely, they free up points for Practiced Rituals (2% increased Mastery) and Dreadlash (improved Dreadstalkers). That extra Mastery pushes overall Demonology DPS up even further, so the build that ignores the Felguard wins twice: once on the pet itself and once on the talents you can pick up instead.
Put together, this is the first time in World of Warcraft’s history where taking the Felguard can realistically get you kicked from high-end content. For a demon that survived every rework of the spec, including Demonology’s summoner-heavy Legion era, that is a strange place to end up.
Warlocks are used to turbulence, but not this
Playing a Warlock has always meant riding the balance rollercoaster. Affliction tends to swing between excellent and mediocre, and core parts of Devastation keep getting reshaped patch after patch. The Felguard, though, was the constant. Even when WoW Season of Discovery brought back Metamorphosis, the Felguard stayed a core piece of the spec.
With a new balance pass for classes and specs on the way, the Felguard is still off the menu, and it may stay that way for the rest of this patch, possibly all the way to The Last Titan.
What this means for you
If you are pushing raids or high keys as Demonology, the practical takeaway is simple: swap your pet and your talent path. Take the Succubus when you need pure damage, take the Felhunter when your group needs reliable interrupts and utility, and reinvest the saved points into Practiced Rituals and Dreadlash. New content is coming in patch 12.1.5, so expect more tuning before things settle.
The wider WoW picture
Elsewhere, the WoW: Forever beta is doing so well that Blizzard had to improve its servers just to let everyone log in. Unlike WoW Classic and modern World of Warcraft, Forever will keep receiving updates without raising the level cap or bringing back existing expansions. Fans have been asking for some of its features in retail, but Blizzard has confirmed that neither the Skyborne elves nor the new two-name system are heading to World of Warcraft any time soon, if ever. At BlizzCon the studio also revealed Midnight Eclipse and The Last Titan, which effectively wraps up the Worldsoul saga.
If you want to follow the beta’s talent experiments, we covered the datamined Shaman tank talents in a separate piece, and every other class and patch story lands in our World of Warcraft news hub.
FAQ
The Succubus if you want the highest raw damage, the Felhunter if your group values faster interrupts and general utility. The Felguard is currently behind both.
The Succubus and Felhunter received roughly 350% more damage, while the Felguard only got about 20%.
Not taking it lets you pick up both Practiced Rituals, which grants 2% increased Mastery, and Dreadlash, which improves Dreadstalkers. That combination raises overall DPS more than the Felguard does.
Its damage is lower by roughly 0.6% to 2%, and against the Felhunter it also loses on utility.
A new balance pass for classes and specs is coming, but the Felguard remains off the menu for now and could stay that way for the rest of this patch, or even until The Last Titan.