There are a few interesting things in the Demonology tree in Wrath of the Lich King, but this 31-point talent was what jumped out at me the most. Replacing Soul Link, which was moved down to 11 points, Demonic Empowerment is the long-needed uh-oh button for our demons. Kind of like their own version of the PvP trinket. The cool thing is that, depending on the demon you have out, you get different effects.
Demonic Empowerment Requires 30 points in Demonology Grants the Warlock's summoned demon Empowerment.
Succubus - Instantly vanishes, causing the Succubus to go into an improved Invisibility state. The vanish effect removes all stuns, snares and movement impairing effects from the Succubus.
Voidwalker - Increases the Voidwalker's health by 20%, and it's threat generated from spells and attacks by 20% for 20 sec.
Imp - Increases the Imp's spell critical strike chance by 20% for 30 sec.
Felhunter - Dispels all magical effects from the Felhunter.
Fel Guard - Increases the Fel Guard's attack speed by 20% and breaks all stun, snare and movement impairing effects and makes your Fel Guard immune to them. Lasts 15 sec.
With a cooldown of 1 minute, this spell will come in very handy for a variety of situations. In fact, I've key bound it in the Beta simply because I've found it to be incredibly useful. Let's take a look at the various uses after the jump.
I thought I'd do a Blood Pact on a Warlock's demons and how they'll be changing somewhat in Wrath of the Lich King, but considering there are two other trees to worry about, I've got the next two weeks loaded. Instead, we'll take a short look at one demon each day and see how the new talents and inherent demon abilities change the way you'll be playing with your pet.
For today, we'll take a look at my personal favorite, the Felhunter. I love the Felhunter because its cute, scaly, and eats my opponent's buffs and locks them out of magical schools. Out of all the demons -- with the exception of the Succubus -- Warlocks get the most benefit from micromanaging a Felhunter. This demon changes the most significantly in Wrath owing to a few things. The bad news first: currently in Beta, Felhunters no longer confer Paranoia, so in Wrath you'll actually get stun-locked by surprise instead of seeing it coming and not being able to do anything about it anyway. It also loses Tainted Blood, which won't be missed because a Felhunter with a Rogue or Warrior on it is going to die, -475 attack power notwithstanding.
As Inscription is slowly built into a viable trade skill, Blizzard sneaks more and more glyph data onto the Beta server, even if none of it is directly available thus far. This build, MMO Champion discovered a nice selection of Warlock glyphs, and I have to say that most of them look pretty sweet. Of course, it's hard to say for sure on how good some of them are until we know for sure if PvE damage rotations besides Shadow Bolt spam will be viable in Wrath's endgame, but I'll assume they will be, for the most part.
I write a little, mostly intermittent column called The Art of War(craft). As it's a PvP column, I actually intended for it to be a play on Sun Tzu's The Art of War. On the other hand, I'm also an artist and I found that my recent trip to Internet-less limbo gave me enough time off from World of Warcraft and blogging about it to actually work on some illustrations. Of course, being the true WoW addict that I am, what better way to celebrate my withdrawal symptoms than by drawing Warcraft-related art?
I put WoW Model Viewer to good use as I used it as a reference for drawing. Being unable to go online to take actual character screenshots, I drew up a list of my wife's character's gear from memory and added some flair of my own, such as an exaggerated off-hand tome. It was my very first time working on Corel Painter, so I struggled a while with my colors. I was rather pleased by the result, though, specially on Jhuutom, her Warlock's felhunter. In the tradition of true World of Warcraft addiction, I've been working on my own character art as well. A larger-sized image after the jump. Pogi points to the first one who can identify the weapon she's holding.
Been a while since we did a staff, and considering how badass (and just plain weird) this baby looks, why not this one?
Name: Zhar'doom, Greatstaff of the Devourer (Wowhead, Allakahzam,Thottbot) Type: Epic Staff Damage/Speed: 145-323 / 3.20 (73.2 DPS) Abilities:
+70 Stamina, +47 Intellect, which makes it perfect for Warlocks, though really any caster would probably benefit
Improves spell critical strike rating by 36, spell haste rating by 55, and increases damage and healing by 259. In other words, it rocks. Having a two-hand weapon limits you a bit, but this baby is your one stop shop for every stat important to a caster. Definitely a beautiful caster staff.
And it's in the shape of a stretched-out Felhunter, or, depending on any conspiracy theories you may have about Blizzard continuity, a Zergling (more on that in a second). I couldn't find a video for you, but apparently it writhes and the mouth opens and closes as you hold it, too -- pretty weird and wacky.
So about the Zergling thing -- Zerglings, as you may know, are the lower-rung units in the Zerg race of Starcraft, another Blizzard game. They look very similar to Felhunters in WoW, and it's true, this staff does look a little bit more like a Zergling than any other Felhunter we've seen in Azeroth. Plus, the name of the staff seems to be a reference to a Devouring One, another Zerg groupie. And it comes from Outland (a place out in the middle of space), and we have already seen Zergling noncombat pets in game.
So I submit to you the conspiracy theory of all conspiracy theories: What if Warcraft and Starcraft are taking place in the same universe? And what if, depending on timelines, Zerglings are Felhunters and vice versa -- what if the Zerg is an evolved (or primitive) form of the Burning Legion? Just something to bend your mind a little bit on this Friday afternoon.
How to Get It: Drops from the marquee star of the last expansion, Illy Dan himself. Drops at a rate of somewhere between 10-20%, so not super rare, but unless you're seriously farming the guy and/or are a Warlock or high DPS-doer who really needs a nice staff, you might have to wait a bit.
But who doesn't want this thing, really? Put an "of the Devourer" after anything, and it becomes instantly more desirable. Tell me you wouldn't want a "Cupcake of the Devourer." Have you heard about that new Apple product, the "iPhone of the Devourer"? And dude, I'm so jealous -- my friend just got a "Nintendo Wii of the Devourer"!
Getting Rid of It: Sells for 18g 39s 48c to vendors, disenchants into a Void Crystal. You should keep it though -- if the Zerg do invade Azeroth, maybe you can hold it hostage or something.
All the World's a Stage is skipping class (gasp!), and playing with roles every Sunday evening.
Our spells are shiny and bright, well worth using in more than just combat situations! Last time we talked a bit about this idea, as well as how druids, hunters, and mages could use their spells to entertain their friends. Today we turn to the remaining classes: priests, paladins, rogues, shamans, warlocks and warriors.
Each roleplayer would do well to sit down and examine his or her action bar to pick out those spells which can be used outside of combat, and think of whatever opportunities imaginable to make good use of them. Chances are, if you put your mind to it, you can come up with some really creative ideas.
Buffing, for instance: You've got these beautiful abilities that can benefit anyone around you, no matter what class or level they are. If you're going to bless them with such a neat thing, why not say something about it while you do so? You can say, "<Deity Name> guide you, sir!" or, "you look pretty dumb -- have some extra intellect!" or whatever expression sounds right for your character.
As Inscription is slowly built into a viable trade skill, Blizzard sneaks more and more glyph data onto the Beta server, even if none of it is directly available thus far. This build, 
I write a little, mostly intermittent column called 
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