I’ve just started the game. I’m level 12. I have a few attribute points that I haven’t touched. Debating using them for cunning. I have used a few for physique. Not really sure what to do with those since they aren’t refundable afaik.
I also have a couple of devonation points. Not really sure where to go there. I’ve spent some time looking at the tree. Need to really spend some more. Not too sure what’s going to be my best bang for my buck.
I’m finding that I could really use some sort of aoe damage. I was considering going to soldier for my second class. War cry looks like it could be helpful. Field commander for sure. Possibly blade arc for the aoe.
Again not really sure where to go with this build.
I’m half tempted to move to a firearm build for the aoe. Even then I’m not too sure what would be best to go with either.
Hi. A good idea is to save some ability points for gear that drops or when you know what you are speccing.
I am not an expert player but have played through the campaign in normal with a demolition character. I also used firestrike. It has a little bit of AOE burst. I then leveled up the mastery bar and now in epic mode I am using canister bomb for huge mobs and it now has a devotion based proc doing even more AOE damage (using archer stars sign). But in normal even a few points in canister bomb was ok AOE. But firestrike does some amount of AOE on those clustered near your attacks.
Also you will be influenced just on what drops. For me I was using a lot of chaos damage (brimstone) for like 15 levels because a lot of chaos stuff dropped for me I think like 3 epics based on chaos damage. But by the end I was doing mostly physical damage.
For stats it’s about gear access and damage. Physical is for tankiness; I don’t think it affects damage. Cunning is for some kinds of damage (and to hit) and spirit is for other damage. If you want focus on fire then spirit affects that. Physical/pierce from firestrike I would focus on cunning. My build is all cunning and enough physical to equip more gear. The reason is that I do mostly physical/pierce/bleed in the plan thus cunning affects these. Also flashbang helps with critical hits which favors cunning. Even now in epic what gear drops is affecting me because my first legendary does a lot of internal trauma damage so I am speccing towards that including the canister bomb does internal damage. The canister bomb is pretty bad ass too! It is like a bomb that hits and then rains dynamite bombs that then they explode too.
The biggest issue is that Demo doesn’t really come online until level 25 or so. Your best skill at low level is going to be Vindictive Flame because it helps keep you alive and destroys low-level mobs with the aoe. You may also be better off with a shield at low level because you pretty much just need to stay alive long enough for VF to nuke them.
Around level 25, you’ll have enough points to pump up Fire Strike, Explosive Strike, Static Strike, and Searing Strike, which will really help your single-target damage.
I went Soldier as my secondary spec to pick up value points in Menhir’s Will, Military Conditioning, Fighting Spirit, and Blitz. Arcanist can be a fun choice instead.
To your attribute question, Physique is king, and Spirit usually comes next in a Demo build. Do you want to capitalize on physical or non-physical (see: fire and lightning) damage? My build is more or less 1:1:0 Physique/Spirit/Cunning because I’m all about elemental damage.
If you pick up a good firearm, use it! There’s no reason to stick to your guns (ha) and stay melee the whole game if you can perform better as ranged.
I thought it had a couple meters blast radius? I am referring to the explosive strike modifier (in the tree) which I assume everyone would take who takes firestrike. Grim calc says 3.4 meter radius (at 12/12 points). And then if you are stacking chaos or fire damage then there is brimstone fragments from firestrike.
Oh thanks Sweet Tech. I didn’t even realize that haha! I looked on grim calc and sure enough you are correct. Ok yeah I get those points back to put in something else! The funny thing is I haven’t really even been short on damage.
You get AoE from proc skills. Feral Hunger hits 5 enemies at once and restores life. Devotion-wise you’ve got Bull Rush and Maul from Dire Bear and Bull.
It does just fine after elite. I have no problem taking down anything in Ultimate, including a few of the nemesis mobs. I have posted several videos in this forum of the build in action post B31.