I have tested a lot of builds and I usually build my chars by combining demo/soldier or demo/nightblade.
I am also more interested in melee than ranged but I could use any of them if needed.
I am wondering that if there is any way to get crowd control / AOE / Auras without actually investing points in the mastery bars. I usually choose one main way of dealing damage and a secondary way of doing cc.
For instance, if going Demo, I usually get firestrike as main attack and then I usually max canister bomb or something like that. Another build I am testing, is using Phantasmal blades (Heart seeker maxed) and firestrike too. God damn those pb (level 2) are already a mana bitch.
So… to shorten this… what do you recommed for getting aoe/cc without investing in any ability. I have been trying (slam, greater slam) and it’s really nice for battling bosses. What other effects can be attached? I have just tried little in this regard. And should they be attached to main weapon or shield if going 1h+shield?
I’m a bit confused about what you mean here, like do you want to rush masteries and not bother to put lots of points into skills on the way?
If so, and you always use demolitionist, then quick and easy way to get some AoE (not CC though) is Searing Ember and Flintcore Bolts later on for an off-hand, and Enchanted Flint for a weapon (fire aura). Use fireblast and greater fireblast – they’re spammable (no cooldown) and deliver AoE splash damage.
Combine that with some points in Flame Touched and Vindictive Flame and you can get through veteran pretty easily just spamming fireballs with AoE and even do all right through a good chunk of elite with that. You might need an ectoplasm or two or some other source of good energy regen, but that’ll let you get far without investing too much in skills, letting you rush your mastery bar or whatever you want while just using skills granted from components for your damage output.
That does make you feel like a caster initially which might seem weird with a commando or saboteur, but it is a very fast way to level up and clear enemies quickly.
For devotions with demo I always want Ulzuin’s Torch. I love Meteor Shower – it seems to proc endlessly without delay since it has a 3 second duration with 3.5 second cooldown, making it so there’s only a half a second or so gap from one shower to the next if you attack fast, and does very respectable damage.