Doomguard (warlock minion)

For Doomguard lore, see Doomguard.

Once they served Archimonde: now they serve any that can control them.^[1]

The Doomguard is a temporary demonic guardian minion available to Demonology warlocks. It has a low probability of spawning only if the talent [Doom] is the killing blow on a target.

Notes

The Doomguard lasts for 25 seconds once spawned. Because it is a low probability occurance on an already difficult to achieve event (killing a target with Doom), it cannot be relied upon and exists more for class fantasy than any actual notable damage source.

Abilities

The Doomguard's single ability is [Doom Bolt], which is cast on the warlocks' current target. Like all warlock minions, it also benefits from [Avoidance], reducing non-player AoE damage taken by 90%.

History

The Doomguard used to be summoned via Curse of Doom (now simply [Doom]) or [Ritual of Doom]. Curse of Doom, when dealing the killing damage to any mob that granted experience, would summon a Doomguard. However, the summoned Doomguard was not under the warlock's control, and would immediately attack the warlock upon spawning. The Doomguard was quite capable of killing the warlock and his allies, and had to be enslaved via Enslave Demon in order to control him, although he could resist enslavement, or break free later on and begin attacking the warlock again.

Alternatively, Ritual of Doom could be used to summon a Doomguard, albeit by sacrificing the life of a random party member. The Doomguard summoned from the ritual was automatically under the control of the warlock for 15 minutes, and despawned after that time. The spell was later changed so that party members did not die outright from the summoning.

These two summon sources were removed in the Cataclysm expansion. In their place, the ability [Summon Doomguard] was added as a single-target summon with a 10 minute cooldown. At the time, it would only attack targets with Bane of Agony or [Bane of Doom] on them, and would cease attacking if no targets had one of those two debuffs. In the Mists of Pandaria expansion, the reliance on Bane of Agony or Bane of Doom was removed, instead attacking the warlock's current target for the duration. In Legion, Summon Doomguard's cooldown was reduced to 3 minutes and it became the primary single-target DPS cooldown for warlocks for all specializations, sharing a cooldown with [Summon Infernal] (which was used as an AoE cooldown). The Doomguard was also available as a permanent pet option via the talent [Grimoire of Supremacy], available to all 3 specializations.

In Battle for Azeroth, Summon Doomguard was removed entirely in favor of specialization-specific demon cooldowns, and the Doomguard itself was restored to a spawn from Doom killing blows, though now a low probability spawn rather than a guaranteed spawn as it was originally from Curse of Doom.

Trivia

The Doomguard appears as a rare card for the Warlock class in Hearthstone. The flavor text reads: "Summoning a doomguard is risky. Someone is going to die."

Patches and hotfixes

Hotfix (2016-09-23): Doomguard (Demonology)'s Doom Bolt damage increased by 18%.
Patch 6.2.0 (2015-06-23): Model updated.
Patch 4.1.0 (2011-04-26): Doomguard's damage has been increased by 50%. The Doomguard is intended to be the best guardian for single-target damage, and the Infernal the best when there are multiple targets.
Patch 4.0.1 (2010-10-12): No longer a summoned demon that can be controlled. Now only has one ability.
Patch 3.3.0 (2009-12-08): This pet now innately has Avoidance like all other warlock pets.
Hotfix (2009-05-13): The Doomguard's ability [Cripple] now reduces ranged and melee attack speed by 20% instead of 45%. Cripple's slowing effect does not stack with other slowing effects such as Thunderclap and [Infected Wounds].