A History Lost in Time
Long ago, these Demons were rather powerful creatures that could not be controlled easily. In the darker days, to maintain control of these Demons one had to cast the spell Enslave Demon, using a Soul Shard, to maintain control. Otherwise, the Demon would break free, first taking its anger out on its previous master, then terrorizing whoever was in its way. The Infernal would be summoned under your control, but after a duration, it would break free, requiring it to be re-enslaved. The Doomguard is obviously a more powerful Demon, and so even after summoning it, it would be free to attack you, testing your will to enslave it on the spot. Moreover, while the Infernal simply could be spawned through a fireball in the sky, a spell taught to you by Niby the Almighty, the Doomguard could only be summoned through a complex ritual, involving five foolish souls, and the sacrifice of one of their lives to bring forth the Demon, a ritual taught by Daio the Decrepit. While these Demons have fallen out of use, I still highly recommend completing these quests, as the knowledge to summon such Demons may come in handy one day.
Truth be told, these Demons have often never truly had any real purpose for any Warlock. They were more novelties; small side shows to inspire the awes of companions, and perhaps to be unleashed on some unsuspecting village. As time went on, the penalties were lowered, the secrets explored and the techniques perfected. No longer did the Infernal break free from his chains when summoned, no longer did the Ritual of Doom need the life of a member to summon forth the Demon, and in the end even the need to Enslave the Demon was unnecessary. Today, the Infernal and the Doomguard can be summoned, under the Warlock's control, and will serve him dutifully until his time on the mortal planes is done, and will return to the Twisted Neither, without so much as a grunt. The only contrast to this is the use of Curse of Doom. This curse, when used on an enemy that is a threat to you, will summon the Doomguard, free and furious at you, provided the damage caused by the curse is what kills the enemy. But this curse is rather clumsy, and no Warlock truly uses it to summon a Doomguard in his time of need.
Possible Futures
If you permit me to set aside the roleplaying voice for a moment, we Warlocks found out during the slow reveal of the Warlock rebuild for Cataclysm, a few things that pertain to our higher Demons. The first thing was that the creators wished to see the Demons used more, that they would have some purpose. So, in their wisdom, decided that the Infernal and Doomguard would be summoned as "Guardians" as opposed to "Minions," meaning that they will not replace the current Demonic Minion you have out. Also, though less obvious, is the fact that they will no longer have a pet bar, and will not be able to be controlled, similar to a Ghoul of the Blood and Frost Death Knight. This will matter much more further into the article. The other interesting note was about the fate of Curse of Doom. In the Cataclysm class changes preview, it was revealed that Demonologist Warlocks would get a new talent called "Impending Doom," which would lower the cooldown of the Curse when certain spells are used. Currently, some Demonologist and Destruction Warlocks will use Curse of Doom as opposed to Curse of Agony on their targets, if they last long enough for the 1 minute duration to expire, as Curse of Doom's damage is actually larger than the collective damage of a minute's worth of Curse of Agony. This means, at least to me, that the Blizzard Designers are hoping to expand this use, at least with Demonologists, but could also spell the end of Curse of Doom's purpose of summoning a Doomguard.
So then, let us take a potential look into the future, and see just what could be in store for the two great denizens of the lower circle.
Infernal
The Infernal right now will make a very decent decent into Guardianship will be a relatively easy one. Right now, he simply flies in, does some damage, stuns a few victims, runs about burning enemies then falls apart. His pet bar, as a matter of fact, simply doesn't have anything in it. The only issue now is that he replaces your Demon. So, when he becomes a Guardian, there should be no problem. But, perhaps it will be possible for him to be worth more than he is now. It's possible to specialize the Infernal a little, to give him a niche for when you would want to summon him over, say, a Doomguard. Remembering back to the Lord Jaraxxus fight in the Trial of the Crusader raid, which seems so long ago now, I remember his summoning of several Infernals, which caused havoc amongst his enemies. Perhaps the new Infernal could function somewhat like his? Now, while many Warlocks have been begging for multiple Infernals, I think that may be too much, though I certainly won't be complaining if I'm Reigning Chaos amongst my enemies. Maybe while the Infernal runs, he will leave a trail of Felfire behind him, damaging anything that comes across it? Perhaps he could even have a random aggro table, jumping from enemy to enemy, leaving a trail of destruction behind him. I can see the Infernal being the Warlock's choice for heavy AOE situations, where monsters are rushing at you left and right and you need just a little more oomph to deal with them. I know I would love to see a tightly held Alterac Valley chock hold near Dun Baldar broken by an Infernal smashing about all my Alliance foes.Doomguard
The Doomguard is a much more complicated story than the loyal Infernal. Firstly, his method of summoning, if we accept that Curse of Doom will no longer be able to summon him, is left with the Ritual of Doom, which was a channeling ritual that needed four more players to click on his portal. The process could be rather long, and to have this to simply summon a Guardian, especially a guardian intended to be a cooldown for a certain need or fight. But then again, I would hate to lose the iconography of setting up a ritual and summoning such a powerful Demon. Perhaps it could become a ritual that could be performed by the Warlock on his own, channeled for some length of time, but that if others participated they would speed up the channeling. Just a thought. The second, and more important issue, is just how the Doomguard will perform. If you play as a Death Knight, you will know that when taking the talent "Master of Ghouls," your Ghoul will become a permanent, controllable pet, and will gain access to numerous abilities that won't be used when simply summoning a Guardian Ghoul. The main advantage the Doomguard served wasn't necessarily his DPS, but rather his impressive list of abilities; which include Cripple, Reign of Fire, Warstomp and even Dispel. So then, how would the Doomguard work, if he were an uncontrollable guardian? Would he simply use all these abilities randomly? Another problem for any Warlock who has used the Doomguard is that his abilities tend to leave him Mana less. So then could you get rid of his Mana? Then he becomes too powerful. Then if you take away his abilities, he becomes useless. I think the potential really sits there with the Doomguard, his terrifying appearance should be seen by any Warlock's enemy. I think the best niche for the Doomlord to fill should be single-target DPSing. Maybe he could be summoned during an enrage, when time is an issue for DPS, or even when you are fighting a single boss that requires alot of movement. I think then some abilities could certainly stay, particularly Cripple. Then he could be balanced around his niche, as opposed to keeping this or that ability.And so I leave you to ponder at just what powers might be at your fingertips in the future. There is, after all, an entire Neither that we have yet to pierce into. Suffer well, brothers and sisters.
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