Blood Pact: Meet the minions part 5, the infernal and doomguard
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This week, Blood Pact looks at the bad-boys of our demon companions. When you think through the various warlock minions it's common to consider their usefulness. This is especially true of non-warlocks and raid leaders. Everyone knows that imp for his ranged DPS, health bonus and constant grumbling, the felhunter for annoying casters, voidwalker for tanking, felguard for pure DPS and the succubus for, well, dying a lot in Black Temple. This week though we look at two minions that are best known for killing people and causing trouble in towns and villages: the infernal and the doomguard.
Anyone who has been playing the game for some time probably remembers at least one occasion where a bored warlock has decided that they have nothing better to do than annoy low-level members of their own faction by setting one of these guys loose. If not then you've almost certainly heard stories. It's these stories that, even though this chaos is no longer possible, make others look at locks with much suspicion and locks sigh for the old days.
Infernal
A favorite from the Warcraft RTS games, this guy is partly responsible for many players selecting their first warlock. He appeared on the original WoW cinematic looking all 'ard and then climbing a tower to eat a mage. Those who quest in Desolace in their 30s encounter them in a pleasantly demonic zone. We also find them causing much disruption when we first arrive in Shadowmoon Valley. Strangely though, many locks don't bother to do the quest to summon their own. I expect this is related to their general lack of utility, but it probably also has something to do with being available at the same time as the felguard talent.
Level 50 is a busy time for warlocks; you have your mind on changing talent build to get the felguard (as recommended by typical leveling guides), you have your Sunken Temple quest to think about (always worth doing at 50) and you have the infernal to learn to summon. Luckily for us the troll and infernal quests come from the same awesome little imp. Impsy can be found stood beside his less interesting 'master' (Niby the Almighty) in Felwood, just North of the Bloodvenom Falls. In case you were wondering, yes, Niby does make a return in Icecrown Citadel, where he will sell you your tier 10 gear.
The Infernal quest line starts with Niby but all he does is tell you to talk to his imp. Impsy will in turn send you off to gather three items that drop from demons in Felwood, Azshara and The Blasted Lands. He'll turn these into a Fel Fire with which you can reignite Kroshius, then you nip off to resurrect and subsequently kill Kroshius. This shouldn't be too tricky as he's no longer an elite, he used to be pretty hard to solo or would require a group to kill. Bring back his core, watch a funny skit involving a chicken and receive an off-hand item and the ability to cast Inferno. You can actually learn the spell from a book that drops in Blackrock Spire but the drop rate isn't great and why would you want to avoid visiting Impsy?
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After one minute your infernal will simply crumble to rubble. Historically he was only enslaved and so when his time came he would break free and attack you or anyone else that annoyed him; this is where he got his bad name.
Doomguard
There is actually two ways to summon a Doomguard. One is to kill something with Curse of Doom, though it has to be something you would get experience for. The easiest things to do this on are elementals and demons as you can cast CoD then Banish them, followed by a rank one Banish; that should keep them busy until the CoD pops. A Doomguard summoned in this way is free and will attack you so make sure you are ready to Enslave it.
The other way to summon a Doomguard is through the Ritual of Doom. This also needs a reagent as well as four other people to click the portal. In days gone by the ritual would kill one of the people performing it (no durability loss) but for some reason this was seen to be a bad thing. Now one person only loses some health, so no fun there. Once summoned in this way he is automatically enslaved for 15 minutes with no chance of breaking free. After that time he just despawns.
The doomguard is a pretty powerful demon and as such has been used a fair bit by affliction locks. The reason only afflocks have used him is simply because until recently (patch 3.3) they don't get any real benefit from their minion. Demonology locks will lose way too much DPS without their felguard and the same is true of destruction and their imps. Now that felpuppies buff affliction locks nicely the Doomguard has no place in raids once again.
The ritual of Doom spell can also be learned from a book but the drop rate is still not too good, I would recommend the quest chain that will also teach it. You need to go and see Daio the Decrepit in the North of the Tainted Scar (SW Blasted Lands), and pick up the quests The Prison's Casing and The Prison's Bindings. The first will require killing mobs in the southern part of Winterspring; this will be easy at 80 but at 60 (when the quest is available) I strongly recommend you take a friend or two. The second quest requires a trip to Dire Maul, again, at 80 this is easy enough but at 60 you will want a group. The easiest (quickest) way to the mobs you need in DiM is through the back door in the pavilion with the sad elf. Once you have done these quests you can do Suppression which again is a group thing at 60. These quests are steeped in warlock-juice and so great fun to do.
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Both these guys are, to my mind, in dire need of a revamp for Cataclysm. It seems to me that they were introduced more from a role-play "wouldn't this be cool" angle than from any serious attempt to add something to the warlock class they would use. The Doomguard utility in early Wrath raiding was more a failure of any other minion to be worth using rather than any great strength of its own and the cooldown meant that you could only use him some of the time. The big problem they suffer from is not benefiting from any of the lock talents. In this respect they behave more like guardians than minions. This isn't a terrible thing in its own right but if they aren't going to behave like our minions then I don't think they should replace them.
I would like to see these guys used more like the shaman fire elementals. Those moments when you just want to get out a bit more burst, maybe you're looking at a 1% wipe or a group of adds has just broken loose (many whelps...). Your minion should still be doing their thing but for a short while you call in the big guns. Not something to use every fight, that would become a boring 'rotation' thing, but just a little something extra now and then. Failing that, you should certainly have your minion returned to you when they despawn and not have to resummon them again. That way the infernal and doomguard could be used mid-fight.
As I've said before, I would love to see warlock minions become more diversely used; a minion for a job, not for a talent build. We have learned to reach through into the nether and pull forth diverse demons to do our bidding, demons that are specialists in different situations; it's such a shame to only use one for every job.
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Filed under: Warlock, Analysis / Opinion, Quests, Guides, NPCs, (Warlock) Blood Pact
Reader Comments (Page 2 of 3)
duffry Jan 4th 2010 6:57PM
If you only have a short time left on the fight them popping an infernal is almost always going to be worth the DPS cost of the GCD and better than sitting around waiting for a new demon to be summoned (without all the summoning cast time reduction talents). The more time left to the end of the fight the more viable it becomes to get back your normal minion.
He does have an immolation aura, and I think you read it in this article a few minutes ago.
:o)
Storm is far and away my favourite Tim Minchin piece to date.
Exodus Jan 4th 2010 6:53PM
I would love to see the minions get their own category (offensive,defensive balanced), like warriors have with battle stances. Making all pets available to summon, obviously the VW would be considered defensive, and the doomguard offensive. having access to all minions without tree specs would be great, and doing away with that useless doomguard ritual...in which you can never get anyone to help you anyway. Would be cool...just an idea tho.
DeathPaladin Jan 4th 2010 6:57PM
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I heard the plan actually was to change the Doomguard and Infernal to what you are talking about. They would be changed from "minion" to "guardian" so summoning them does not cause the regular demon to go away, making them more DPS cooldowns like Summon Gargoyle or Dancing Rune Weapon are over in Death Knight country.
Mr. Crow Jan 4th 2010 7:51PM
I know I posed this question as BlizzCon '08, but forgot to follow-up with it at '09, especially in light of all the other Lock changes being discussed. Do you remember where it was brought up?
The idea of popping Inferno as a DPS cooldown (maybe similar to Moonkin Treants?) is really appealing to me, as it would then match with the visual concept of a warlock bringing down burning rocks to wail on his enemies. Out of all the conceptual "promises" of the Classic WoW and Burning Crusade cinematics, that's one that I always felt was a little lost. (Okay, the actual destruction caused by the Blood Elf Priest's Holy Nova at the end of the BC cinematic was awesome too.)
duffry Jan 4th 2010 7:54PM
I can't correct you but would be interested to see a blue post or the like stating this. Not seen anything as yet.
Pemberton Jan 4th 2010 8:36PM
You're right - we should have something like that!
Vogie Jan 4th 2010 8:02PM
I would love to see them revamp the minions in Cata. Perhaps give each tree it's own Cooldown guardian - Destro Gets INfernal, Demo gets Doomguard, Affliction could get either Shivarra or Void Lord of some type.
With that setup they could do some other fun things: 2 crits by your imp resets the cooldown on inferno, Glyph of Doomguard causes your FG to shift into Doomguard form while you shift into Meta form, regardless of cooldown, etc, etc
Pemberton Jan 4th 2010 8:33PM
The Infernal is handy in Battlegrounds. I used to pop him out while the Horde was attacking in the north and you could see half the player army stopping for a moment as it charged the group as the not-too-familiar-with-Warlocks folks went "WTF IS THAT?", and sometimes all you need is a half second break to turn the battle in your favor. :D
I usually got several msgs when I used the infernal from my own team's Warlock asking where I got that demon. I really wish I could hold onto one longer because I would love to go about my business in Dalaran with one of those walking around behind me.
wowmail80 Jan 4th 2010 8:47PM
I'd like to see the models get an revamp and look more up to date. I'd like to see my Voidwalker look more like the ones in Hellfire. I'd like to see them gradually get more mean looking or aggressive looking as you gain in levels. Void starts out like how we have it now and then by lvl 80 he looks like the Hellfire Voidwalker. Just my 2 cents really.. oh and maybe a new minion or 2?
perderedeus Jan 4th 2010 9:24PM
Having a Doomguard serve a similar function as a shaman's Fire Elemental would be great. They could diversify it even, and have the spell summon either a Doomguard or an Infernal - they would have the same attacks/damage output, the only difference would be cosmetic.
Vodkamartini Jan 4th 2010 9:57PM
The Doomguard and Infernal both have a place in Wintergrasp and battlegrounds ... the former if you're able to get in early or with friends that will help you summon it.
Busted out the Doomguard back in the WG days when we all piled in the Dalaran rooms before the start. Thing lasted the full 15 minutes, freaked out a Tauren female shaman who cowered into a dead end and was pummeled to death by it and a few DoTs, and helped take out three siege engines in a rare successful defense for the Alliance on the Shandris server. It was too slow to catch up to catapults, though.
As for the Infernal, it makes a great option for landing on attacking catapults, especially since it was (3.2 last check) immune to the machines' fire. Will buy your side some time and maybe take a catapult or two with it. Raising hell in crowded flag rooms is another possibility in battlegrounds. And for a desperate demonology lock in PVE, if you've burned your pet rez in battle, the infernal is a last resort. But I think it screws up the tank's aggro. Caveat emptor.
/wants more Warlock pets or options. How about a Felguard with the OS lizard guard look?
trimmer Jan 5th 2010 12:12AM
Lock's should get Infernal just purely for the BG factor. Even if you don't PvP that much, it is an awesome feeling that one lil IN-FER-NO can wipe the other side. For example, if you are Horde and the Ally are piling in the room all grouped together in IoC, ummm idiots he doesn't have a stun limit and you are all in his circle, drop an inferno and the three seconds they are stunned our war leader kills tank and healers and everyone scrambles. This is happened so many times I love it. Also in AV when ally all pile up on their bridge or just in front of it, or when defending Galv, everyone piles up, so just drop lil inferny and watch them all be stunned and multiple HK's love it.
jasonkidd1234 Jan 4th 2010 10:20PM
Well if you guys get Infernal Guardian Hunters get to summon an extra pet for a cooldown =(
I remember the days when Hunters and locks were the MAIN pet classes. Now it seems like Hunters are just the class with guns that has a pet following him around. Before long Shadowpriest will get to make shadowfiend last longer and consume dots on a target or something.
But Infernal and Doomguard are cool. Seeing one summoned is never a bad thing, especially in BG's for the lulz factor.
Pemberton Jan 4th 2010 10:27PM
Nah, hunters get a tremendous amount of variety with their pets, and the pets get bigger as you level. In terms of usefulness, warlocks get four (Only demonology Warlocks get the Felguard, and I'm destruction.)
Just my two cents, nothing against hunters.
Ashleigh Jan 5th 2010 12:14AM
Yeah, you definately forgot the dispel, which makes the doomguard actually highly valuable for an endgame warlock.
Unlike the felhound where his shadowbite dispells a magical ability once every eight seconds, the doomguard actually can dispell almost anything as the global cooldown is very short. In ToGC, while burning down the healers, we place doomguards on the healers and have the warlocks spam dispell the HoTs off the healers. Let me tell you, the healers don't live very long.
It's the most valuable part of the doomgaurd. Please check more then wowhead before you write your articles. You're a representation of both our class for other members of our class, and for people who know nothing about it. A lot of my guildies will come here and take your word as god, and you don't even know what all the pet -does-.
brian Jan 5th 2010 12:29AM
Fun article! And I was just trying to think of more useless aspects of the warlock class, too.
P.S. Roleamagekthx
Dethro Jan 5th 2010 1:46AM
My Doomguard is usually a "we just tried this and died at 1%" or "those guys aren't taking good enough care of the adds" etc solution.
Plus, when I bring him out, the people that go "What the hell is that!" make it worthwhile :D
Azizrael Jan 5th 2010 2:21AM
There's a few fights I'd always bust out my Doomguard for - Patchwerk, Mal'ganis. Infernal in the last minute of a fight if the Doomguard was on cooldown and not out for extra DPS on top of drain soul. Affliction pre-3.3 was pretty much the only time as a lock I've ever actually thought about my pet and changed situationally.
vexis58 Jan 5th 2010 2:35AM
Oh, definitely. I'd play my warlock again if I could have a Wrathguard following me around all the time. Those things are awesome.
Valintyne0111 Jan 5th 2010 10:01AM
I actually just wrote a post at world or warcraft about my hopes for the warlock. I mentioned that i hope in Cataclysm allows demo warlocks to, like BM hunters, tame all types of demons and keep them. Hopefully the warlock well get the changes it deserves!