Sargeras
06-20-2008, 02:28
Build
http://feats.goonheim.com/demonologist#t0t1a5b5c5d5f2g3j2k1n1q2r2u5v1w5z5B5E 1t2a5b5g5h1i3o2p3.
It's a conflag leveling build and centers around FoG.
General Tree
I decided to go with spiritual armament over spiritual aegis since the vast majority of pve mobs deal some sort of physical damage. I could have taken aegis as well, but felt it was probably not worth it for pve. I'm guessing it would be better in pvp.
Protection of set is vital for the demonologist as it can greatly reduce the damage he takes in combat. Naturally, I would like to take any feats that improve its effectiveness. Quickened iron seems like a critical feat since my demo seems to do fairly well against a large group for the first several seconds, but drops like a stone when PoS breaks. The crimson shield tooltip makes it sound useful, but unfortunately, the bonus it provides is miniscule and doesn't scale. If/when it gets fixed, I suspect it will become quite useful. The damage return form mirrored iron isn't that significant and the demo has better ways of dealing damage. I put 1 leftover point in it, but may change my mind
The opinion on archmage seems to be mixed. Its tooltip is misleading, so let me explain how it works. 5 points in archmage means having either the fire or lightning buff on means you effectively have both on. Its main benefit in my build seems to be for spamming inferno/shockblast (see pull strategy for more info). Having archmage could come close to doubling your shockblast damage, increasing your total aoe damage by more than 33% (this is based on very rough numbers and the fact that shockblast deals more damage than inferno). I have not included it in the feat tree yet because I'm not sure where to take points out of. However, I am eager to try it out and I'll post a new tree as soon as I can.
The mystical attunement buff is just a decent damage bonus. It doesn't seem all that high for the regular FoG damage, but for aoe spells and for the FoG dot, I think it will help a lot. I picked unleashed power primarily to increase the aoe range of FoG, since its aoe damage is quite significant and the range increase for inferno and shockblast is also nice, although their range is already pretty substantial. I left out the two chants because I hear they barely scale and put in tome of Erlic for some more damage.
Conflag Tree
For the conflag tree, I mostly went with spells that boosted my FoG or fire damage. This made most of the feat choices were easy, but the less clearcut ones are mentioned below.
I thought about consuming flames, but left it out because I was told the mana regen is not too signficant. I also left out devouring flames since the dot isn't usually what kills mobs, so it doesn't proc all that often. I upgraded inferno of amher since I use that fairly often against large mobs and went for gate of hell and let them burn simply because they are both really good. While gate of hell may not be as useful for pve as for pvp, I'll be close to 80 when I get it anyway, so I may as well have a nice stun, esp. for pvp.
I am lvl 35 right now and as such, I haven't had personal experience with many of these feats. I can say that upgrading lingering flames is quite useful as it does a fair bit of damage and is really handy when I go oom and the enemy has <10% health. The rest of my feat choices are solely based on what I read on this forum and my experience with somewhat similar feats in other mmos (mostly some of the general feats). I went conflag before general since my survivability was and still is sufficient, but more damage is always nice and speeds the game up. After finishing the first 4 tiers of conflag, I think I'll switch over to general for some better defense.
Skill
I'm maxing out the skills that give mana and hp regen and mana attractor. I haven't really done research on which skills are the best, so feel free to suggest better ones.
Pull Strategy/Cast Order
I've seen a lot of this information scattered around on the forums, but some is purely from my own experience as well.
For large groups of weak mobs (couple levels below me), I use inferno of amher to pull and then waves of flame when they get close. This seems the fastest way to kill them since the first inferno usually takes out at least half their health and the waves kill the whole group way before its duration ends.
For 1-2 mobs of my level or higher, I just FoG one until he's dead and move on to the next one. Aoe pulling two mobs may be a bit more efficient, but I've never had trouble with only 2 either way, so take your pick.
For groups of 2-3 harder mobs, my strategy is an inferno pull and then FoG each target individually. I prefer this over straight aoe since killing mobs individually reduces the overall damage I take.
For more than 3 mobs, I'd recommend an inferno/shockblast cycle since the total damage output of the aoe will outweigh that of FoG by a good bit. (strategy originally suggested by timesten)
The demonologist storm chains early on and can use very effectively against groups and single enemies. An obvious use of chains is to use it on one of a group of enemies and pull the rest toward you, effectively reducing the amount of enemies smacking you at once. If you're facing a melee and ranged mob, you can also chains the melee mob and aoe both to maximize damage. Just be careful that the chains don't break in this case. One final use of chains is against boss mobs, whether they're alone or with minions. Chains the boss mob and FoG away. This should let you get at least a few hits on it before it attacks you. Remember that mobs can still attack whiled chained, but can't turn around. If you're in a critical situation, chain a ranged mob and run behind it.
I have not gotten to the level where I can put points into combustion, so hellfire stream does roughly the same dps as FoG. However hellfire stream and shock are still very useful because they let you kill mobs that are at low health faster than just FoG. This can save you time when facing 1-2 mobs and can save your life when facing more. If you're in a tight situation against a group of enemies, make sure to use both of these spells to take out ones near death when you can. However, be careful and try to use them only when you know you can kill a mob. If the mob is alive after both are cast, you'll have to use FoG to finish it (since hellfire stream and shock both have long cooldowns) and you've just wasted at least 1 second and mana.
I haven't use pact of set too much, but just be careful not to die from it after killing an enemy. Resting is a good way to offset the damage and I've heard you can cancel the buff, although I haven't tried it myself.
Running can be very helpful in a battle and not just to get out of it completely. If you run, any enemies you have not damaged will only run a short distance after you, but ones you have damaged will run a much longer distance, possibly forever. This makes running a good way to separate a group of enemies. You also regen health and mana if you don't take damage for long enough, so running away when you get low on either and turning around after regening a bit may help turn the tide. You could also try resting since it should become available at the same time as you starting naturally regening. Also, if you're having trouble killing a group of enemies and your respawn point is close, concentrate on individual targets and continue after you respawn.
Items/Gear
Keep any potions you find, esp. health and mana ones, since they are a great help in battle. I went to buy some, but then saw that they were quite expensive (10-50 copper I think). That was a bit too high since I only have 10 silver, but depending on your budget, you may wanna buy them as well.
Gear choices are fairly straightforward. I go for +casting conc, +int, and +spell damage above all else. Also, keep in mind that none of these stats probably even work as they should, so don't put too much stake in getting the gear for now.
http://feats.goonheim.com/demonologist#t0t1a5b5c5d5f2g3j2k1n1q2r2u5v1w5z5B5E 1t2a5b5g5h1i3o2p3.
It's a conflag leveling build and centers around FoG.
General Tree
I decided to go with spiritual armament over spiritual aegis since the vast majority of pve mobs deal some sort of physical damage. I could have taken aegis as well, but felt it was probably not worth it for pve. I'm guessing it would be better in pvp.
Protection of set is vital for the demonologist as it can greatly reduce the damage he takes in combat. Naturally, I would like to take any feats that improve its effectiveness. Quickened iron seems like a critical feat since my demo seems to do fairly well against a large group for the first several seconds, but drops like a stone when PoS breaks. The crimson shield tooltip makes it sound useful, but unfortunately, the bonus it provides is miniscule and doesn't scale. If/when it gets fixed, I suspect it will become quite useful. The damage return form mirrored iron isn't that significant and the demo has better ways of dealing damage. I put 1 leftover point in it, but may change my mind
The opinion on archmage seems to be mixed. Its tooltip is misleading, so let me explain how it works. 5 points in archmage means having either the fire or lightning buff on means you effectively have both on. Its main benefit in my build seems to be for spamming inferno/shockblast (see pull strategy for more info). Having archmage could come close to doubling your shockblast damage, increasing your total aoe damage by more than 33% (this is based on very rough numbers and the fact that shockblast deals more damage than inferno). I have not included it in the feat tree yet because I'm not sure where to take points out of. However, I am eager to try it out and I'll post a new tree as soon as I can.
The mystical attunement buff is just a decent damage bonus. It doesn't seem all that high for the regular FoG damage, but for aoe spells and for the FoG dot, I think it will help a lot. I picked unleashed power primarily to increase the aoe range of FoG, since its aoe damage is quite significant and the range increase for inferno and shockblast is also nice, although their range is already pretty substantial. I left out the two chants because I hear they barely scale and put in tome of Erlic for some more damage.
Conflag Tree
For the conflag tree, I mostly went with spells that boosted my FoG or fire damage. This made most of the feat choices were easy, but the less clearcut ones are mentioned below.
I thought about consuming flames, but left it out because I was told the mana regen is not too signficant. I also left out devouring flames since the dot isn't usually what kills mobs, so it doesn't proc all that often. I upgraded inferno of amher since I use that fairly often against large mobs and went for gate of hell and let them burn simply because they are both really good. While gate of hell may not be as useful for pve as for pvp, I'll be close to 80 when I get it anyway, so I may as well have a nice stun, esp. for pvp.
I am lvl 35 right now and as such, I haven't had personal experience with many of these feats. I can say that upgrading lingering flames is quite useful as it does a fair bit of damage and is really handy when I go oom and the enemy has <10% health. The rest of my feat choices are solely based on what I read on this forum and my experience with somewhat similar feats in other mmos (mostly some of the general feats). I went conflag before general since my survivability was and still is sufficient, but more damage is always nice and speeds the game up. After finishing the first 4 tiers of conflag, I think I'll switch over to general for some better defense.
Skill
I'm maxing out the skills that give mana and hp regen and mana attractor. I haven't really done research on which skills are the best, so feel free to suggest better ones.
Pull Strategy/Cast Order
I've seen a lot of this information scattered around on the forums, but some is purely from my own experience as well.
For large groups of weak mobs (couple levels below me), I use inferno of amher to pull and then waves of flame when they get close. This seems the fastest way to kill them since the first inferno usually takes out at least half their health and the waves kill the whole group way before its duration ends.
For 1-2 mobs of my level or higher, I just FoG one until he's dead and move on to the next one. Aoe pulling two mobs may be a bit more efficient, but I've never had trouble with only 2 either way, so take your pick.
For groups of 2-3 harder mobs, my strategy is an inferno pull and then FoG each target individually. I prefer this over straight aoe since killing mobs individually reduces the overall damage I take.
For more than 3 mobs, I'd recommend an inferno/shockblast cycle since the total damage output of the aoe will outweigh that of FoG by a good bit. (strategy originally suggested by timesten)
The demonologist storm chains early on and can use very effectively against groups and single enemies. An obvious use of chains is to use it on one of a group of enemies and pull the rest toward you, effectively reducing the amount of enemies smacking you at once. If you're facing a melee and ranged mob, you can also chains the melee mob and aoe both to maximize damage. Just be careful that the chains don't break in this case. One final use of chains is against boss mobs, whether they're alone or with minions. Chains the boss mob and FoG away. This should let you get at least a few hits on it before it attacks you. Remember that mobs can still attack whiled chained, but can't turn around. If you're in a critical situation, chain a ranged mob and run behind it.
I have not gotten to the level where I can put points into combustion, so hellfire stream does roughly the same dps as FoG. However hellfire stream and shock are still very useful because they let you kill mobs that are at low health faster than just FoG. This can save you time when facing 1-2 mobs and can save your life when facing more. If you're in a tight situation against a group of enemies, make sure to use both of these spells to take out ones near death when you can. However, be careful and try to use them only when you know you can kill a mob. If the mob is alive after both are cast, you'll have to use FoG to finish it (since hellfire stream and shock both have long cooldowns) and you've just wasted at least 1 second and mana.
I haven't use pact of set too much, but just be careful not to die from it after killing an enemy. Resting is a good way to offset the damage and I've heard you can cancel the buff, although I haven't tried it myself.
Running can be very helpful in a battle and not just to get out of it completely. If you run, any enemies you have not damaged will only run a short distance after you, but ones you have damaged will run a much longer distance, possibly forever. This makes running a good way to separate a group of enemies. You also regen health and mana if you don't take damage for long enough, so running away when you get low on either and turning around after regening a bit may help turn the tide. You could also try resting since it should become available at the same time as you starting naturally regening. Also, if you're having trouble killing a group of enemies and your respawn point is close, concentrate on individual targets and continue after you respawn.
Items/Gear
Keep any potions you find, esp. health and mana ones, since they are a great help in battle. I went to buy some, but then saw that they were quite expensive (10-50 copper I think). That was a bit too high since I only have 10 silver, but depending on your budget, you may wanna buy them as well.
Gear choices are fairly straightforward. I go for +casting conc, +int, and +spell damage above all else. Also, keep in mind that none of these stats probably even work as they should, so don't put too much stake in getting the gear for now.