Is Damnation viable in PvP

crystal892f · April 2015

Hey guys, how viable is the Damnation path in PvP?
I was thinking about a feat setup like this.
I am running Fury for some months now, and I'm curious how Damnation might fare in PvP. Any experiences?

mjytresz · April 2015

I'm running nearly the same Paragon feats, except I took Critical Promise and Burning Soul.

From my observations in PvP, you're putting out less DPS than a Fury build but you also have some more utility.
The Puppet is a great distraction tool and it's a massive pain in the *** to aim around it. Combine the Puppet with Immolation Spirits and you have 3 other hitboxes to hide behind. To add to this, Immolation Spirits don't expire when you die.

The damage reduction, damage boost, and slight life steal provided by the Puppet adds up to a noticeable amount. It's not a bad build but it more comes down to how capable you are as a SW.

Unknown · April 2015

This content has been removed.

crystal892f · April 2015

Hmm, I'm just worrying about the Soulpuppet staying alive. If a smarter player actually attacks the Soulpuppet (~25k HP (afaik) is not a lot) and kills it, I'm standing there without most of the nice buffs.

denvald · April 2015

crystal892f wrote: »

Hmm, I'm just worrying about the Soulpuppet staying alive. If a smarter player actually attacks the Soulpuppet (~25k HP (afaik) is not a lot) and kills it, I'm standing there without most of the nice buffs.

If they optimize damnation it would be good again, for example

1. Make the puppet have 100k HP
2. Make Wrathful souls and SpiritFire work (the feat that makes you LS 15% of puppets damage and the one that's AoE 50% weapon damage around the puppet are both broken, see my 'Complete warlock thread' for info)
3. Make it respawn next to you faster (So it enters new rooms at the same time as you like companions do)

Among other things the Damnation path would be much more viable than it is now. Until that happens, I recommend you remain Fury.

crystal892f · April 2015

Thanks all for the input so far.

macjae wrote: »

I played Damnation for a bit. Not sure how I'd compare the viability to Fury, but it's a fun spec to play. It it somewhat problematic that you lack effective control over the immolation spirits and puppet, but they also inflict reliable damage even if you're cc-ed or busy slipping around.

btw, macjae, here I read that you are a Templock for PvP. Are you willing to share why? Are there any kind of "hidden" synergies?

bubette · April 2015

I play as damnation in pvp and love it. The puppet and immolation spirits are great to hide behind and do put out some strong damage, helping me as I put out damage as well. As far as I'm concerned, damnation is a viable play style in pvp and at least should be tried by those looking to change.

jobsalotofwork · April 2015

crystal892f wrote: »

Hmm, I'm just worrying about the Soulpuppet staying alive. If a smarter player actually attacks the Soulpuppet (~25k HP (afaik) is not a lot) and kills it, I'm standing there without most of the nice buffs.

You just avoided 25k damage and you think its a bad thing?

I think you have a point in n that area damage is bad for the build but most people spec single target so I wouldn't worry to much.

Granted take this advice with a grain of salt as I only repeced last night to damnation and have run 0 PvP since then. Previously I was HB fury.

schietindebux · April 2015

If used to damnation build and combine with hadar grasp/harrow storm/ and f.e. Wraith shodow, like I do as Soulbinder-Fury (2xcc + 1 lock), I guess it could be fun, sure against scilled player its allways a problem, spec doesn´t matter in that case
if someone gave me a free respec I woulld test it

denvald · April 2015

crystal892f wrote: »

Thanks all for the input so far.

btw, macjae, here I read that you are a Templock for PvP. Are you willing to share why? Are there any kind of "hidden" synergies?

Rank 4 shadow walk + Eldritch momentum.

Temptation is very very very gear dependant, until you have high gear levels temptation will always be sub-optimal.

For PvP go with Fury (until you have high gear you can consider temptation or stay Fury, or if they fix damnation this option can be good too)

Unknown · April 2015

This content has been removed.

crystal892f · April 2015

macjae wrote: »

There's pretty good synergy between the Eldritch Momentum feat, negation enchantments (though I've run with a bloodtheft for a while too, and that was okay) and soulbinder sparks. Basically, if they don't burst you down early and fast, you can live through nearly anything (within reason). With Dark Revelry added now, you also get an escape mechanism similar to using Shadow Walk, but being able to also slot Warding Curse for additional protection. Inflicting damage can be a problem with this setup, but Warlock's Bargain and Infernal Spheres, and some boons allows some output while slipping about.

So not any "hidden" synergies per se. Most of all it's about the ability to tank a node and contest that against greater numbers and surviving through sheer stamina. And I just find it gratifying when people accuse me of infinite stamina cheats or give up trying to kill me and go elsewhere.

Okay, thank you for your reply.

Considering how bad our Shift is (in comparison with other classes) I wish Eldtritch Momentum would be a T1 - T3 feat, so EVERY path can access it - or make it even an inherent mechanic to our Shift.

azli82 · April 2015

we need to design new build contain of 5 SW in pvp 10 vs 10

All doing HB- Damnation with Soul Puppet ( crazy with 1000% threat )

so we can build up a team for "Piranha" - we eat together we die together .

who the 1st will say wtf is that?

just thinking with 40 SW dragon run with 40 Soul Puppet . How long the dragon survive?

crystal892f · April 2015

I changed to Damnation yesterday and oh boy am I missing damage. I had ACT running during a GG match. Damage wise the top 3 were:
(1) Hadars Grasp
(2) Essence Defiler
(3) Soul Puppet's Wraith Claw
All three of them around 60k damage.
I guess I was more tanky with the 10% less damage feat, but of course, sooner or later I got killed still - even with full sparks. Encounter wise I used my known setup of Grasp, Harrowstorm, Killing Flames, and I just couldn't kill better geared guys (mostly of other classes) fast enough before they killed me.
Another problem is the Puppet itself - you can't control which enemy it attacks. And when I used certain map shortscuts, the Puppet wasn't in the fight at all. Which might've been a good thing, because it couldn't get killed. The latter happened quite often when a smarter player attacked it. It went down fast and I was left there without all the buffs - just as I feared it would happen.
I think I'm going back to Fury

Unknown · April 2015

This content has been removed.

jobsalotofwork · April 2015

macjae wrote: »

That would pretty much make Fury with Eldritch Momentum the only build that would matter for SWs in PvP. It's pretty much the "real" capstone feat for Temptation SWs in PvP.

I do think SWs need some boosts in terms of defensive mechanics, but it should be something that doesn't collapse everything into one build to rule them all, and something that benefits both Hellbringers and Soulbinders. It is, however, hard to strike the correct balance as SWs under the right circumstances can also be extremely hard to kill as it is.

Just wondering what that means. I ran into a TR saboteur with negation that did 4 million damage during GG mostly with SE and the piercing proc. He was extremely tanky and used stealth mostly for attacks - most attacks were crit with CA and he was usually solo. The only time he was forced off of 1 was when 5+ rolled onto it.

I'm assuming this is without the reported bug too.

schietindebux · April 2015

That would pretty much make Fury with Eldritch Momentum the only build that would matter for SWs in PvP. It's pretty much the "real" capstone feat for Temptation SWs in PvP.
I do think SWs need some boosts in terms of defensive mechanics, but it should be something that doesn't collapse everything into one build to rule them all, and something that benefits both Hellbringers and Soulbinders. It is, however, hard to strike the correct balance as SWs under the right circumstances can also be extremely hard to kill as it is.

I don´t want to play the "tanky-chicken-style", sry but thats what it sounds to me
no way, in that case I wont play that class in PVP any more, all time fluttering arround avoiding damage, I stay SB fury for sure

losing 4 times in a row is hard, but pugging all time I can compete most times against other classes, using CC--> HG-HS + WS and some matches are real fun, I like the calss its no easy mode but its a bnit better imo than in mod 5
paladin, now I know how to handle DOT+WB+essecedefiler melted
TR HG-WS/orbs-HS, scilled ones with high deflect+ equip no chance against them in most cases, if they fix the broken stealth mechanic (they did not 23. april) its gonna be much better facing them
GWF 50-50
GF 50-50 from the back--done
faithfull DC- all time stunned lifted HF-WS-HS-brodd of hadar- dead very fequently
DC rightous--dangerous but sqishy
CW --> control him, he is not that tanky by flying in the air or being stunned
Hunter stun build --> I lose most cases in 1 vs 1
the difference in nearly every domination is 1. matchmaking 2.teammates 3. balancing issues from some classes

the stun from WS does not deal damage but I have the impression lots of classes that are cought in a "purple-flickering-sauce-à-la-warlock" get some kind of uncomfortable, thinking: "omg, wtf happens to my feet, am I gonna die?"
like a psychological advantage (sometimes better than combat advantage)

I can´t compete to far better geared or scilled player, or premades maxed, but thats not a big surprise

Is Damnation viable in PvP

Comments