Demonology in BFA

After Demon Hunters took Metamorphosis, Demonology needed a big redesign from its Mists/Warlords incarnation. The focus thus shifted to, rather than transforming into a demon, instead summoning large swarms of demons (to be fair, Wild Imps were already a thing as of Mists if I recall correctly, though they were gained in a different way.)

In BFA, that theme is still central, but with some shifts. Probably the biggest thing is that you won't have Demonic Empowerment anymore - with the exception of your big 1.5 minute cooldown, once a demon is out, it's out. No handing out tickets anymore!

But there are other changes, so let's break it down:

Your two big rotational summoning abilities are still Hand of Gul'dan and Call Dreadstalkers, but the former now consumes a maximum of three soul shards, down from four, with the corresponding number of imps summoned.

Shadow Bolt is still your big filler ability, but you also now have Demonbolt. This functions a bit more like the old Soulfire spell. It has a very long cast time, but there is a proc that will make it instant-cast. The spell does a burst of damage and grants you two soul shards.

That proc, called Demonic Core, can occur when your temporary demons expire. Your dreadstalkers will always give you procs, and each Wild Imp has a 10% chance to give you a proc.

What this means is that, if you're lucky, your Imps will give you a positive feedback loop, allowing you to cast more Hands of Gul'dan.

You also get Implosion baseline, and I'll confess I'm not entirely sure how to use it best. This spell has all your Imps charge the target and explode, each dealing damage. However, since this kills them, I don't know if it also prevents them from proccing Demonic Core.

So what is cut?

Well, Doom is now a talent, so it's opt-in. Demonic Empowerment is totally gone, as is Demonwrath. This means that I believe Hand of Gul'dan and Implosion are your only AoE spells. If Imploded imps can proc Demonic Core, I imagine Implosion will be a good use for them in comparison to the single-target firebolts they shoot off when in AoE situations.

The big demon summons - Doomguards and Infernals - are now restricted to a single spec each, with Doomguards going to Affliction and Infernals to Destruction. This means Demonology actually gets its own big summon: Demonic Tyrant. This guy will buff your existing demons to allow them to last longer and also increases new demons' damage while simultaneously shooting shadow damage at your target. The Tyrant looks like one of the souped-up Eredar like Khaza'duum on Argus.

There are also talents that add more demons to summon. Bilescourge Bombers gives you a ground-targeted AoE (a kind of rain of fire, except it's felbats instead.) There's also a talent that causes you to occasionally summon an additional random demon, which is pretty fun as they seem to use just about any demon model - I've seen Shivarrah, Wrathguards, those weird Fel-bird-bug things you sometimes see in the central road in Mac'aree, those two-headed eye demons from Netherstorm, the demonic fel dogs from Tirisfal Glades... I suspect it's a long list, even if they're probably mechanically the same.

My basic sense of the spec is that it's a bit faster-paced, but perhaps any given demon doesn't deal quite as much damage (though I'm also experiencing the loss of the artifact weapon and the lack of awesome gear from Argus, so maybe I'm being unfair.)

Again, I really need to figure out Implosion, but I think that once I'm used to it, this will turn out to be a big improvement to the spec (really, does anyone like Demonic Empowerment?)