The Felguard Build

The crown jewel of the revamped Demonology tree, and quite likely the one new ability that most warlock players are excited about, gives you the ability to summon a felguard. If you’ve never seen one, a felguard is a hulking demon wielding a wicked axe, by far one of the coolest-looking summons available.

Getting it, of course, will require 41 talent points, making it only available after level 50 and leaving little left for anything else. It is, however, a worthwhile sacrifice, especially for the PvE ‘lock. That’s because the felguard combines the best traits of the other standard summons. It has the tanking ability of a voidwalker, the attack power of a succubus, and the attack speed of a felhunter. I’m generalizing, of course, but you get the idea. It’s the best of everything, your own personal warrior.

There are, of course, two other very significant benefits of getting a felguard. First, there’s no tedious quest to go on. If you’ve played a warlock long enough to be considering one, you’ve surely gotten sick of the long, drawn-out summon quests, so this one’s a nice freebie. Second, it’s a stable summon. You don’t have to do anything special to summon or maintain control of the dang thing, unlike with the infernal or the doomguard. Just pop a soul shard, pull him out, and have at it.

All told, it’s definitely a worthwhile talent. Sure, you give up a lot to enjoy the privilege, but it’s more than worth the cost.

Felguard Abilities

The felguard’s abilities make it an ideal tank and melee combatant. Its first ability, anguish, is almost identical to the voidwalker’s torment. Whether or not it is more powerful than torment or the felguard’s naturally high DPS just makes it generate that much more threat is uncertain. Suffice to say that you’ll be hard-pressed to keep aggro on yourself with anguish turned on.

The felguard’s second ability, cleave, let’s the felguard hit two opponents at once. It’s a copy of the warrior ability of the same name, with the only difference being that it uses mana instead of rage. It’s definitely nice when you’re juggling adds or running camps, although you may want to toggle it off if you’re in close proximity to neutral mobs.

The felguard’s third ability, intercept, allows the felguard to charge an enemy in the same manner as the warrior’s charge or the druid’s feral charge. It stuns for three seconds, which is long enough to get off most of your DoTs if you time it right. This is a moot point, of course, since the felguard will probably keep aggro afterward anyway.

Unlike the other summons, the felguard also has two passive abilities, demonic frenzy and avoidance. Demonic frenzy gives the felguard a stackable boost to attack power for every attack, so it gets more powerful as a fight progresses. Avoidance gives the felguard an extra 50% chance to avoid any area effect attack. Honestly, this one didn’t feel like it fit the felguard’s theme, but hey, it’s still not a bad ability.

Felguard Talent Build

Sure, you’ve got to spend 41 talent points to get your felguard, but that doesn’t mean you aren’t getting anything else for your investment. The new demonology talents add a lot of potential to the aspiring demonologist. Here’s a breakdown of each tier.

First Tier - Your options here are Improved Healthstone, Improved Imp, and Demonic Embrace. This choice is pretty straightforward. If you’re into raiding, put two points into Improved Healthstone and three into Improved Imp. If not, sink them into Demonic Embrace.

Second Tier - Thanks to the new Demonic Knowledge talent in the eighth tier, and the fact that it also increases your maximum mana, Fel Intellect no longer sucks. Pick up three points in that. Don’t bother with Improved Health Funnel or Improved Voidwalker unless you have some special fondness for them. You’re probably better off dumping the extra two points into Improved Healthstone or Demonic Embrace, whichever you didn’t pick initially.

Third Tier - Fel Domination is a must, so pick that up first. Fel Stamina has also been updated to non-suck status, so put three points into that as well. The new talent here, Demonic Aegis, will be more worthwhile when Burning Crusade comes out. Since it’s still preferable to Improved Succubus, go ahead and put a point in it to finish out the tier.

Fourth Tier - Master Summoner is a must, so drop two points there. Unholy Power is good and a necessary prerequisite to Master Demonologist later on, so drop your other three points there.

Fifth Tier - Improved Enslave Demon and Master Conjuror are worthless; I highly recommend ignoring both of them. Demonic Sacrifice is occasionally useful, and definitely worth one point. Use two of your remaining points to finish out Unholy Power. The last two points should go toward Demonic Aegis or any of the tier one talents you may have neglected so far; yes, you’ll get more mileage out of them than anything else left available to you at this point.

Sixth Tier - Master Demonologist is a tried-and-true favorite, although the new Mana Feed talent isn’t bad either. I’d still choose the former over the latter, so put five points into Master Demonologist and move on.

Seventh Tier - Soul Link is a must-have, so throw your first point there. Demonic Knowledge is fantastic, especially thanks to Fel Intellect and Fel Stamina, so put three points there as well. The new Demonic Resilience talent isn’t bad, but not an absolute necessity. Balance your points between that and Mana Feed as befits your style. Whatever you decide, I’d put at least one point into Mana Feed to take added advantage of your Life Taps.

Eighth Tier - Not much of a choice, here. Demonic Tactics is a nice little boost. There’s no need to put all five points here if there’s a lower-tier talent that you want more, but you won’t regret spending what you can on this one.

Ninth Tier - Need I say anything? Drop your point into Summon Felguard and have a ball.

Got all that? Nah, I didn’t think so. Here’s a visual breakdown of the Felguard Build at level 60 for those who prefer to user interface approach. Enjoy!

Hi Stephen Ward,
Really like your warlock felguard talent build. If u r still playing wow - please give us your thoughts on how to put the last 10 point in a lvl 70 warlock build

Best regards Philip

Hi Philip. Thanks very much for the compliment. It’s always nice to know my advice is appreciated. To answer your question, I’m a much bigger fan of Affliction than Destruction, so my advice is to spend the remaining talent points there. Here’s the breakdown:

Tier One - I have used my instant-cast Corruption in almost every single fight since level 14. As far as I’m concerned, it’s a staple of every warlock build. Put five points into Improved Corruption and never look back, because Suppression just doesn’t compare.

Tier Two - The mark of an experienced warlock is whether or not he leverages Life Tap. If you’re savvy enough to recognize its value and wise enough to know when to use it, you’ll rarely run out of mana. Thus, two points in Improved Life Tap is your first stop. The next two should go into Soul Siphon to improve your Drain Life. Put the last point into Improved Drain Soul or Suppression, whichever suits your fancy.

Tier Three - Amplify Curse is always nice, so pick that up first. Put your other four points into Fel Concentration, because nobody likes to be interrupted while they’re sucking the life out of their opponent.

Tier Four - Throw your DOTs, spam Drain Life, and let fly with the instant-cast Shadow Bolts whenever Nightfall procs. Add in the fact that you have a tweaked out Felguard beating your opponent to a pulp and you’ve got some nasty DPS going. Put two points into Nightfall first. Use your next point to finish off Fel Concentration. The last two can really go anywhere you like; I chose Grim Reach just because I like to Drain Life from a mile away.

Here’s the visual breakdown of the revised felguard build at level 70. Note that I’ve made some revisions on the original based on recent patches. Most notably, I took a lot of points out of Demonic Tactics, which now gives a boost to crits instead of a straight damage boot.