Author: Sargeras
Published under authorization of Sargeras.
Conflag PvE Guide
Last Updated: July 14, 2008
I originally posted this guide in Hawke's thread. I'll be updating it here from now on.
While this guide focuses on PvE, it delves a bit into PvP as well since many of the higher-end conflag feats/spells can be used very effectively for both purposes.
Comments and new strategies I haven't mentioned are greatly appreciated.
Build
http://www.conanarmory.com/feat.aspx...2fef2efef6ef::.
It's a conflag leveling build and centers around FoG. Fill out the first 5 tiers of the conflag tree. Since you're too low level to continue, then move to the general tree and fill it out completely. However, watch when combustion(lvl 40) and greater fires(lvl 50) become available and take them right away.
I also recommend respeccing when you get to the 70-80 range and remove devouring flames in favor of impish horde when it becomes available. This rationale is explained below.
Since I have already explained the order you should pick feats in, they are not ordered like that below.
General Tree
Mage Blood - 5/5
Necessary for going into general and mana regen never hurts
Archmage - 5/5
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 use inferno/shockblast whenever I fight more than two mobs and the added shockblast damage is certainly welcome.
Spiritual Armament - 5/5
Provides a nice chunk of resists. Since the vast majority of NPCs deal physical damage, I picked this feat over Spiritual Aegis. From my own experience, this feat is quite handy and can really increase your survivabilty
Mystical Attunement - 5/5
This 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.
Quickened Iron - 3/3
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 does fairly well against a large group for the first several seconds, but drops like a stone when PoS breaks.
The other feats that buff PoS are not nearly as useful though. 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 find a way into this build. The damage return from mirrored iron isn't that significant and given the numerous other feats that increase demo damage, mirrored iron isn't nearly as useful as quickened iron.
Tome of Erlic - 3/3
Gives the 15% more damage for 15 sec at max rank, so it's very nice.
I didn't really talk about the feats I left out too much, so let me briefly mention them here. The two chants might sound like they would be useful. In reality, they don't scale, so their benefits are marginal and not at all worth dumping 5-10 points into. Purge is useful in PvP, but not so much for leveling. The rest of the spells are either completely useless for leveling, like aggro reduction, or just have very limited utility, like dark meditation.
Conflag Tree
For the conflag tree, I mostly went with spells that boosted my FoG or fire damage. This made the feat choices for the first few tiers easy. All the choices are described in more detail below.
Deeper Fires - 5/5
Necessary to get into the tree.
Pyromancer - 5/5
Bonus damage is always lovely.
Fluidic Fires - 5/5
The aoe from these feat is quite substantial. By the time you're done killing one enemy with FoG, enemies close to it can be down to 50% health or less. If you start the fight with greater fires (covered later), you can kill a couple mobs at once with this.
Amassed Flames - 2/2
Once this builds up, it can really increase the damage FoG deals. Especially useful against bosses since they take more hits to kill.
Lingering Flames - 5/5
Lingering flames is quite useful as it does a fair bit of damage. This becomes especially noticeable in longer fights.
Demonic War - 2/2
Nice, long damage buff.
Unholy Hate - 1/1
Has a very fast cooldown (25 sec) and can substantially increase your damage output. Should be used at every change you get.
Devouring Flames - 1/1
Very useful against large groups of mobs. I recommend dropping this when you hit 70 because chaotic blast along with your other aoes becomes much more potent for dealing with large group mobs than FoG, making this feat obsolete.
Detonation - 1/1
Also useful against groups and can deal a good bit of damage.
Living Firestorm - 1/1
Essential feat. This is a great aoe spell. Once it deals the initial aoe damage, it places a molten rock on the ground that deals continuous aoe damage, so just don't pull mobs with this spell.
Combustion - 2/2
Initially, hellfire stream has roughly the same dps as FoG, but this feat makes it have higher dps, so you can use it whenever it's on cooldown. Nice feat to have if you remember to use hellfire stream.
Greater Flames - 1/1
I would say that this is one of the most useful feats in the entire conflag tree, for pure PvE, maybe even the MOST useful. It triples the damage of an FoG cast, but doubles the cast time. While this is a great spell whenever, it's especially hadny for pulling, since it effectively becomes an instant cast. However, it's a little bugged. The greater flames buff will linger a bit after your first FoG cast and if you cast another FoG while the buff is still on, the cast time will still be doubled, but the damage will NOT be tripled. Against most mobs, the GF buff will about 3-4 sec. However, if you use it in seiges or against any other buildings, it will last for the full 15 sec I think. I read that casting shock, hellfire stream, and detonation after an FoG will typically be enough for GF to expire.
Flame Body - 5/5
More damage!
Set's chosen - 5/5
I find that while Pact/Bloody Pact does jack my damage up like crazy, the dot it puts on me often makes it not worth it. Alone, the dot takes away half my health. Assuming the mob doesn't stun me, I can probably finish it off in a few shots, but if it does stun or knock me down, I'm almost certainly dead. While I could probably use a potion to offset the dot, I just find that I'm usually safer not using Pact with Set. Hopefully, this feat will make the ability more viable.
Phase Out - 2/2
Planar Shift is absolutely critical for reducing the damage you take in PvE and PvP and putting 2 feat points into this feat increases the spell substantially. It raises the bonus resists from 30% to 35% and adds some other bonus too.
Blessing of Amher - 5/5
I improved Inferno of Amher since it's a standard aoe spell that I use quite often.
Gate of Hell - 5/5
While Gate of Hell may be more useful for PvP, you'll be close to 80 when I get it anyway, so you may as well have an excellent root. It can also be useful against bosses.
Impish Horde - 1/1
This spell has a pretty short cast time and the imps can deal very impressive damage against bosses or rooted/stunned players. I recommend respeccing at 70 and removing devouring flames so you can get this feat.
Let Them Burn! - 0/1
While I have heard good things about this feat, I tried it and was very disappointed. It channels for 13 sec and deals aoe damage every 3 sec. The top end listed on the tooltip is about 1k, which is the same range as my shockblast, and it can also be cast every 3 sec. Given FoGs decreased casting time, it might actually have higher dps. The bottom line is this spell is no more effective at killing things than the spells I already have. When I used LTB, I saw no increase in damage between ticks. It's only redeeming feature is the low mana cost, but I don't typically have mana problems anyway.
Skills
For leveling, max out bandaging, renew mana, and casting concentration.
Mana attractor really isn't necessary because I typically am lower on health than mana at the end of a fight, so as long as my mana is full before my health, I don't care how fasts it regens.
I'd recommend putting points into climbing as well because it can make accessing certain areas possible or at least easier. For example, one of the villa quests can't be done without 350 climbing. Once you get to Atzel's, you can also get 200 bonus climbing from some gear you can buy for 5g 40s.
Since I'm concentrating more on PvP now, I maxed out hiding, but that's not necessary if you don't PvP.
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