On a one-minute single-boss fight the build spends its points 2/31/18: all of Demonology down to
Demonic Pact, then Destruction for a faster Shadow Bolt that crits for double damage.
002-0005003231220301351-0550004103Every fight and faction got its own talent search. They split into two families, Destruction on one boss and Affliction on three, each within a point or two, and the notes below hold for both families.
Why these talents
Demonic Sacrifice and
Demonic Pact are the build. Sacrificing your Imp gives
Burning Shadow, 15 % more Shadow damage for two hours, where Classic's Imp gave Fire. Pact keeps it when you summon your Succubus. Neither does anything here without the other, so the table gives both the same worth, 10.2 %. Pact needs
Soul Link.
Master Demonologist gives you and the Succubus 10 % more Shadow damage while it is out, worth 7.3 %. It covers your Shadow Bolts, Corruption, the Banes and the Succubus's
Lash of Pain, but not the Succubus's melee, which is Physical. An Imp would bring Fire damage instead, and most of yours is Shadow, which is why the Imp is the demon you sacrifice.
Demonic Knowledge adds spell damage equal to your level, 60, to you and the Succubus while it is out, worth 5.2 %. Blizzard's 7 October article says 33 % of your level. If the article is right, the talent is worth a third of this.
Soul Link makes you and your demon deal 3 % more damage, worth 2.9 %, and sends 30 % of the damage you take to the demon. Nothing attacks you in our fights, so only the 3 % shows here.
Bane cuts Shadow Bolt from 3 to 2.5 seconds and Immolate from 2 to 1.5, so you fit a fifth more Shadow Bolts into the fight. It is worth 10.4 %.
Improved Shadow Bolt: after a Shadow Bolt crit, your Shadow damage on that boss is 20 % higher for 12 seconds. Forever removed Classic's charges, so everything Shadow you cast in those 12 seconds gains, but your Succubus and other warlocks get nothing. It is up 31.3 % of the fight and worth 4.9 %.
Ruin now takes five points for Classic's one-point effect: your Destruction spells, Shadow Bolt among them, crit for double damage instead of 150 %. It is worth 3.8 %.
Agonizing Flames adds 10 % to Shadow Bolt, Immolate and
Searing Pain, worth 5.8 %.
The demon talents are small, because the Succubus does 10.8 % of your damage:
Unholy Power (10 % to all its damage) is worth 1.0 % and
Improved Sayaad (30 % to Lash of Pain) 0.4 %.
Decimation makes Shadow Bolt and Searing Pain hit 6 % harder once the boss is below 35 %, worth 0.8 %. Its Soul Fire half goes unused.
Flexible points
Several points only open the next row: you need 20 points in the first four rows to reach Soul Link and Demonic Knowledge, and 25 to reach Master Demonologist.
Demonic Energies,
Master Summoner and
Improved Felhunter show 0.0 %, 0.0 % and 0.0 %. The Succubus never runs short of mana, nothing is summoned during our fights, and you have no Felhunter. At two points Master Summoner still takes 4 seconds and 40 % of the mana off each summon in your setup.
Demonic Brand is worth 0.0 %. Searing Pain brands the boss so the Succubus's next hits deal extra Shadow damage, but the rotation only casts Searing Pain in the last few seconds, so the brand fires a couple of times a fight at most. If your Succubus dies often, move Brand points to
Fel Domination, which needs Master Summoner: once every five minutes your next summon casts 5.5 seconds faster for half the mana.
Fel Vitality adds 15 % to your mana and is worth 2.0 % on a three-minute single-boss fight, but only 0.7 % on a one-minute single-boss fight, where your mana lasts anyway.
- The two Affliction points.
Suppression and
Improved Corruption at one point each are worth 1.1 % and 2.0 % on a three-minute single-boss fight. The one-minute build moves the Suppression point into Improved Corruption.
Shadowburn replaces the fifth point of Ruin on one minute and is worth 2.9 %. Each cast costs a Soul Shard in game, which our simulator doesn't charge, so bring about one for every 15 seconds of fight.
What each talent is worth
We take each talent out, spend its points on the best alternative and simulate the same fights again, so a worth is the damage those points add here. Because the worths overlap, adding them up overstates your damage. To place a single spare point, read the column for the talent's last point.
On every fight
The one-boss builds are the same on two and three minutes. The one-minute build takes the Suppression point and the Improved Felhunter point for a second point of Improved Corruption and a third of Demonic Brand, and swaps a point of Ruin for Shadowburn. On three bosses the split turns around, fifteen points in Affliction and only Bane's five in Destruction, because there your dots on every boss do more than Shadow Bolt. The table shows where every fight's build moves points against this one.