To Be (Sage / Demon) or Not To Be

Bedazzling - Sanctuary

I've hit lvl 89 andI am just befuddled about which is what and does what to what etc.... any help out there from the 100's? b:thanks PS. Yes I did look at the spreadsheets before y'all go apechit on this cleric...Thanks!

Elanxu - Dreamweaver

personally im a sage i like the sage skills bonuses a lot and the free 50chi cuz i never pk, but im a DD cleric i prefer to have a demon spark...not many DD clerics out there like me though

http://www.ecatomb.net/pwi/skillpwi.php just go to cleric and pick any skill then click sage/demon. look at all the skills and check which ones u would rather have. i put a tally mark next to sage/demon for every bonus i liked, and put 2 tallies on those skills i use a lot. the one with the most tallies=the one i went with.

Bedazzling - Sanctuary

What a great idea!!! I'll do that just now Have a good one!

SylenThunder - Twilight Temple

Yes, it's basically about how your play style is. Sage is geared more towards squad support, and Demon is more towards dealing damage.

I had originally wanted to go Sage, but that's to not flying high enough and not paying enough attention I ended up demon. Thankfully my play style now is more kicking *** than anything so Demon ends up working better for me. Someday when I have free time I will likely make a Sage cleric though.

DeadRaven - Sanctuary

If you do not cash shop, I would also suggest that you take into consideration the cost of getting the skills. Both paths have their pros and cons but if money is going to be an issue for you, then it might be worth factoring in your financial potential for getting the skills you want.

Prices fluctuate a lot but when my cleric went sage, I managed to find almost all the sage skills for the same cost of just one demon skill (demon rez which is usually the most expensive). I really dont know what the prices are looking like nowadays but its something to think about for non-cash shoppers and casual players.



P.S. Though I went sage, please do not take that as advocating for sage as being the better path. I love my cleric but if I was to choose again, I would probably go demon. "The grass is always greener....."

Decus - Dreamweaver

Demon was a no-brainer for me.

EtherbIade - Harshlands

Both sage and demon have nice skill, i have 2 clerics one sage and one demon personnally i prefer demon, ill say dont worry about chi, 3 demon skills give more chi and purify demon dont require chi and plume shield half chi. In pvp and pve i prefer demon.

For the price some skills are the same price demon sage, i think one of the only demon skill which cost way much more than sage one is spirit gift. The price of demons skill is around 500k-30m (on my server HL) and the 30m i bought was demon razor feather, its high price just cause its rare nothing to do with good or not, its ot a skill people need i personnally wanted it cause it was the only missing demon skill i needed to get all. For the rest only IH and Ress cost me 20m each rest of skill was less price than that. Just tempest i dunno cause i was lucky and got the first time with pages of fates, the price for sage are kinda similars around 20 for Ih and ress which is normally 2 skills every clerics want both sage or demon.

Only skill i regret that i bought was my sage ress 20m for people dont loose .1% but on my demon i totally dont regret that cause the chan make a huge difference in everything PVE PVP and TW. The only sage skill that i prefer is purify but still many people prefer demon purify cause no need anymore chi.

Phoenix_Eye - Heavens Tear

Classic Answer , choose whatever suits you , both cultis give many benefits to a cleric.

Biased Answer , Demon all the way >.>

SxeChik - Archosaur

I went demon mostly for revive b:laugh (b:surrender please dont judge me because of this decision) and to me, red spark is sexy b:thanks

Skills I love about demon:
-Revive
-Stream Rejuvenation
-Wield Thunder
-Ironheart Blessing
-Spirit Gift (didn't have this skill yet b:sad)
-Celestial Guardian Seal (didn't have this skill yet b:sad)

Skills I love about sage:
-All their buffs
-All their seals
(Sage have marvelous buffs and seals compared to demon, to me)

So carefully choose your path based on your personal preference about the skills

Sakubatou - Sanctuary

I am almost pure PvE, and see very little possibility I'll ever want to do more than an hour a week PvP (bores me to tears) so that made a choice in my culti. Of all the classes I have sage/demon I think cleric is the most balanced. I have not regretted my barbs culti choice, my sins choice (actually, did regret it so made a second one of the opposite culti), my BMs choice, my venos, my seekers. But I occassionaly regret going demon on my cleric, then go nope! demon is better. Well sage can do this. But I love this demon skill. But, but but but... Its the only culti I think can be truly better for a person based on playstyle, and alot of the benefits from one culti are in the other culti just on a different skill.

Also, the classic answer is demon for pk or DDing and sage for support, but I very much saw demon as the better support.

I had a high level barb before I picked my culti. I getting my mana healed because thats one thing less I have to worry about. As a barb your mana can disappear in 2 seconds, so demon IH really allows me to skill spam for better aggro and I wanted to return that. Sage IH is quite a bit stronger (15-30% depending on your weapon).

I also know that as a barb, having the cleric stop healing you for 7 seconds to rez someone (and usually throw a heal and a buff or two, making it even longer) sucks. The demon rez allows you to pickup people while keeping your barb healed. Or if someone dies during the run you can rez without falling behind your squad because they don't wait.

Chromatic and Silent Seal. I can see this as a benefit for either class. Sage adds guaranteed time (so I've heard) to the seals, which are random time. So Silent is 0-17 seconds + 2 seconds. If it was going to be 5 seconds, its now 7. Demon doesn't debuff you when you cast it, so you save time and chi from having to purify yourself. What kept happening is I was losing time trying to either purify myself or run while slowed, or needing an extra attack because of the weakened damage from Silents debuff, so I picked demon.

People have mentioned it... I love sage buffs. Why? No aggro from them. So Demon Stream of Rejuvenation and Sage Vanguard both give a 100% defense boost. For healing a tank at a boss SoR def boost would work because it combines heal and def bonus. But I hate SoR because of the 3.5 second cast, and vanguard is only 1.5 so I can give IH and Vanguard in the time I could give one SoR and IH has a better healing stack. Vanguard also shines during pulls because you can increase a persons defenses without getting aggro, a way to protect your tank when you normally can't.

Sage Guardian Seal, one of the hardest skills to find, allows you to heal a pulling tank. Also, if you are in MMM, it allows you to heal yourself. Demon has no MMM heals other than pots and genie.

Sage Purify and Wellspring both become faster and honestly, these are the skills you want to be fast.



So there are my real like and dislikes of demon and sage.

AriesBreath - Raging Tide

Sakubatou - Sanctuary wrote: »

I am almost pure PvE, and see very little possibility I'll ever want to do more than an hour a week PvP (bores me to tears) so that made a choice in my culti. Of all the classes I have sage/demon I think cleric is the most balanced. I have not regretted my barbs culti choice, my sins choice (actually, did regret it so made a second one of the opposite culti), my BMs choice, my venos, my seekers. But I occassionaly regret going demon on my cleric, then go nope! demon is better. Well sage can do this. But I love this demon skill. But, but but but... Its the only culti I think can be truly better for a person based on playstyle, and alot of the benefits from one culti are in the other culti just on a different skill.

Also, the classic answer is demon for pk or DDing and sage for support, but I very much saw demon as the better support.

I had a high level barb before I picked my culti. I getting my mana healed because thats one thing less I have to worry about. As a barb your mana can disappear in 2 seconds, so demon IH really allows me to skill spam for better aggro and I wanted to return that. Sage IH is quite a bit stronger (15-30% depending on your weapon).

I also know that as a barb, having the cleric stop healing you for 7 seconds to rez someone (and usually throw a heal and a buff or two, making it even longer) sucks. The demon rez allows you to pickup people while keeping your barb healed. Or if someone dies during the run you can rez without falling behind your squad because they don't wait.

Chromatic and Silent Seal. I can see this as a benefit for either class. Sage adds guaranteed time (so I've heard) to the seals, which are random time. So Silent is 0-17 seconds + 2 seconds. If it was going to be 5 seconds, its now 7. Demon doesn't debuff you when you cast it, so you save time and chi from having to purify yourself. What kept happening is I was losing time trying to either purify myself or run while slowed, or needing an extra attack because of the weakened damage from Silents debuff, so I picked demon.

People have mentioned it... I love sage buffs. Why? No aggro from them. So Demon Stream of Rejuvenation and Sage Vanguard both give a 100% defense boost. For healing a tank at a boss SoR def boost would work because it combines heal and def bonus. But I hate SoR because of the 3.5 second cast, and vanguard is only 1.5 so I can give IH and Vanguard in the time I could give one SoR and IH has a better healing stack. Vanguard also shines during pulls because you can increase a persons defenses without getting aggro, a way to protect your tank when you normally can't.

Sage Guardian Seal, one of the hardest skills to find, allows you to heal a pulling tank. Also, if you are in MMM, it allows you to heal yourself. Demon has no MMM heals other than pots and genie.

Sage Purify and Wellspring both become faster and honestly, these are the skills you want to be fast.



So there are my real like and dislikes of demon and sage.

^ About sums it up.

Just to add to it, the one thing that made me go Demon was how well everything in the Demon tree clicked with each other. E.g. Demon Wield Thunder adds a metal debuff, while Demon Great Cyclone adds extra metal damage. Or Demon SoR adding P.def while giving the full heal. (I did actually use SoR in TTs before I went Demon, too.)

I also took into account that in all honesty, level 10 IH was enough for virtually any instance (PvE of course). Demon IH was slightly stronger in terms of heals but also restored mana, something that I have been thanked and complimented for many many times in FC. Sage IH would be marginally stronger in terms of heals, but honestly with all your IH stacks, how would you notice the difference?

In terms of PvP, when I'm in TW, I can't help but to wonder if Sage would have benefited me more. However, when I'm in PK (especially in 1v1 situations), I'm thankful that I went Demon.

As Sakubatou's said, the Cleric's cultivation paths are probably (if not) the most balanced on both sides, and really depends on each individual's play style.

Chrisssss - Sanctuary

I think sage is slightly better for tw because you get the distance advantage of sage rez and sage purfy is ridiculously fast and sage plume shell helps out big time. The age old question demon or sage but in the end it depends on how you like to play.