Demon Avenger uses HP as its primary stat and Strength as its secondary stat. No other stats affect its damage. Autoassign will put all your points into HP. You gain 30 HP per AP. Your damage will be affected by your max HP and remaining HP. It will be at its lowest at 70% HP, and highest at 100% HP. Demon Avenger's Mastery is 20% like all other melee classes.
The damage formula is approximately:
[MaxHP / 9 + STR] * 1.3 * WA / 100
This has been tested to be accurate to within 0.1% at reasonably high levels.
[CurrentHP / 9 + STR] * 1.3 * WA / 100
is the damage formula used when HP is below 100% but above 70%. If your current HP is lower than 70%, whatever HP you have at 70% is used instead.
The Exceed System consists of the following skills:
Exceed Skills
Exceed Overload
Release Overload
Whenever you use an Exceed Skill, you will gain a buff for that skill, increasing its stage. When you stop attacking, this buff lasts about 10 seconds before disappearing. As long as you keep attacking, this buff will continue to refresh. Using an Exceed Skill five times will increase its stage to its max of 5. The skill will have a purple effect now, and increased effectiveness of some sort. Using a different Exceed Skill will reset the buff for the current Exceed Skill. Thus, you can only spam one type of Exceed Skill at a time.
Each time you use an Exceed Skill, your Exceed Overload debuff will increase by one stack up to a max of 20. The higher your Exceed Overload debuff, the less HP you will recover from Life Absorb. When you have 20 Overload, you can use Release Overload. This will reset your Exceed Overload debuff, but will also remove any Exceed Skill stage you have. Having Release Overload active is important as it increases your Max HP and thus your damage. It also recovers your HP to full at max level.
First Job
Exceed: Double Slash [20] Overload Release [20] Life Sap [10] Demonic Veracity [15]
In first job, you should honestly be OHKOing everything you don't miss on with your single point in Double Slash. If you don't, you could put points into Double Cross until you do. You should also be leveling faster than you can spend your HP. If you really need to recover HP, there's potions, or you can use Double Slash against the air 20 times and then use your one point of Overload Release to recover 24%. Life Sap is very negligible in this case since monsters deal so little damage, and you spend so much to attack compared to what you recover. That being said, mobility will help you the most at the beginning. Double Cross has pretty good range, but it is relatively slow compared to other classes, especially if you reset its Exceed Stage with Overload Release often.
Demon Strike is probably the single most overpowered second job skill in the game. It does four hits, so you'd be very unlucky to miss a monster completely. It's best used on maps with flat platforms where you OHKO so you don't have to backtrack. Since this skill deals four hits, it has already very stable damage, leading to less usefulness from having earlier Mastery. Abyssal Connection provides a sizeable boost in damage with 40 WATK and increases the limit to what you can OHKO. If you have over 100 WATK, Desperado Mastery technically provides a higher increase in damage for 10 points. Unbreakable Steel provides a good increase in defense. Rage Within gives a little bit less, and STR adds some damage as well. If you're already taking 1 damage, add points into Bat Swarm earlier.
Bat Swarm at a single level should be able to OHKO or 2HKO things around your level. It attacks at 330ms, and covers 1800% range. It can be difficult to manage it against a single target boss when using Demon Strike however. It covers a significant amount of distance, and is very unlikely to hit its attack limit until 3rd job. It should be maxed instead of Demon Strike, since Demon Strike is useless in 3rd job, whereas Bat Swarm will always be useful on maps with flat platforms.
Any flat map with few platforms is a good training area. Chryse in particular has the two platforms where Bat Swarm can hit both of from the bottom. Roids would be viable near the end of 2nd job if you can hit often enough.
Demon Strike has a spam delay that is very small. Regardless, Booster cannot cut spam delays, so attack speed will only increase the amount of distance you can walk before using another Demon Strike. Booster is thus only truly useful for Double Cross and activating Bat Swarm at this point, but is important for everything else later on.
Lunar Slash has really good range and damage, even at level 1. Shield Charge is for the single point of utility. It's very situation when you'd want to actually charge things though. Very map dependent. Vitality Veil is really only good for the HP Recovery, since it kills things so fast and then you stop and wait for the long cooldown. Pain Dampener has two uses. One is the Overload reduction, and the other is the Exceed Skill damage boost. The reduction stays the same from 1~10, and 11~20, so you'll see me use the breakpoints in this build there.
Diabolic Recovery provides a +40% HP boost. This will increase your damage by a decent amount (significantly less than 40%). The most important aspect of Diabolic Recovery is the 5% HP every 4 seconds. With this active, you will never need to use potions regardless of where you train. Pain Dampener at 11 provides a bit more reduction to Overload's reduction.
Lunar Slash itself gains a 1.46x increase from 1~20, compared to 1.2x increase of Ease Exceed Overload's 1~20, so if all you're looking for is damage instead of survivability, max Lunar Slash first. Advanced Life Sap increases your HP recovered per monster to 10%.
Ward Evil helps with damage reduction, which means you'll have higher HP longer, resulting in more time between Overload Releases keeping your damage relatively high. You'll likely not be anywhere that has status effects though, but it does provide resistance.
Vitality Veil has some niche uses depending on the map, but it's usually faster just to use Lunar Slash. Shield Charge has some even more niche uses. You can rush a dense platform, and then Bat Swarm them to keep your mobility up. I found it particularly useful to do this at Dual Ghost Pirates' bottom platform. Shield Charge is the skill left unmaxed as it's the least significant.
I went to Red Nose Pirates 3 at around 75 and was 3~4HKOing with level 1 Lunar Slash. Moved to DGP at around 90 since I started killing faster than spawn. I've only ever used potions to see what my max damage was.
Execution is your primary attack in 4th job. Nether Slice is actually completely useless until it is maxed. 1 point is for pomegranates and giggles, honestly. Overwhelming Power provides the next highest increase in damage after Execution. Then Advanced Desperado Mastery. Defense Expertise provides the same bonus as Nether Slice but is passive. Nether Slice will help party members at bosses, but on regular monsters it may not be worthwhile since you need to use it each time they spawn. Blood Imprison is Dark Bind. If you don't need Dark Bind, get Nether Shield first. Nether Shield is actually a 1.14x increase in overall damage output after maxing it compared to 1 point. If you don't boss, Nether Shield comes before Defense Expertise and Nether Slice as well.
If you need to hit more targets than Execution can, use Lunar Slash. Nether Slice is too pomegranatety. Nether Shield is useful, but you have to be careful not to kill the monster it's targeting, or it will disappear immediately.
Reduce Overload reduces your max Overload count. Nether Shield - Spread makes you hit up to four monsters, but only two Shields can hit a single target still.
If you're aiming for pure damage, Exceed - Reinforce, Opportunity, and Nether Shield - Reinforce, Extra Target.
Thousand Swords isn't actually beneficial to %/s or hits/s.
In first job, you should honestly be OHKOing everything you don't miss on with your single point in Double Cross. If you don't, you could put points into Double Cross until you do. You should also be leveling faster than you can spend your HP. If you really need to recover HP, there's potions, or you can use Double Cross against the air 20 times and then use your one point of Release Overload to recover 24%. Absorb Life is very negligible in this case since monsters deal so little damage, and you spend so much to attack compared to what you recover. That being said, mobility will help you the most at the beginning. Double Cross has pretty good range, but it is relatively slow compared to other classes, especially if you reset its Exceed Stage with Release Overload often.
Demon Strike is probably the single most overpowered second job skill in the game. It does four hits, so you'd be very unlucky to miss a monster completely. It's best used on maps with flat platforms where you OHKO so you don't have to backtrack. Since this skill deals four hits, it has already very stable damage, leading to less usefulness from having earlier Mastery. Abyssal Rage provides a sizeable boost in damage with 40 WATK and increases the limit to what you can OHKO. If you have over 100 WATK, Desperado Mastery technically provides a higher increase in damage for 10 points. Solid Will provides a good increase in defense. Inner Strength gives a little bit less, and STR adds some damage as well. If you're already taking 1 damage, add points into Bat Swarm earlier.
Bat Swarm at a single level should be able to OHKO or 2HKO things around your level. It attacks at 330ms, and covers 1800% range. It can be difficult to manage it against a single target boss when using Demon Strike however. It covers a significant amount of distance, and is very unlikely to hit its attack limit until 3rd job. It should be maxed instead of Demon Strike, since Demon Strike is useless in 3rd job, whereas Bat Swarm will always be useful on maps with flat platforms.
Any flat map with few platforms is a good training area. Chryse in particular has the two platforms where Bat Swarm can hit both of from the bottom. Roids would be viable near the end of 2nd job if you can hit often enough.
Demon Strike has a spam delay that is very small. Regardless, Booster cannot cut spam delays, so attack speed will only increase the amount of distance you can walk before using another Demon Strike. Booster is thus only truly useful for Double Cross and activating Bat Swarm at this point, but is important for everything else later on.
Moonlight Slash has really good range and damage, even at level 1. Shield Charge is for the single point of utility. It's very situation when you'd want to actually charge things though. Very map dependent. Inhale Vitality is really only good for the HP Recovery, since it kills things so fast and then you stop and wait for the long cooldown. Ease Exceed Pain has two uses. One is the Overload reduction, and the other is the Exceed Skill damage boost. The reduction stays the same from 1~10, and 11~20, so you'll see me use the breakpoints in this build there.
Diabolic Recovery provides a +40% HP boost. This will increase your damage by a decent amount (significantly less than 40%). The most important aspect of Diabolic Recovery is the 5% HP every 4 seconds. With this active, you will never need to use potions regardless of where you train. Ease Exceed Pain at 11 provides a bit more reduction to Overload's reduction.
Moonlight Slash itself gains a 1.46x increase from 1~20, compared to 1.2x increase of Ease Exceed Overload's 1~20, so if all you're looking for is damage instead of survivability, max Moonlight Slash first. Advanced Absorb Life increases your HP recovered per monster to 10%.
Refract Evil helps with damage reduction, which means you'll have higher HP longer, resulting in more time between Release Overloads keeping your damage relatively high. You'll likely not be anywhere that has status effects though, but it does provide resistance.
Inhale Vitality has some niche uses depending on the map, but it's usually faster just to use Moonlight Slash. Shield Charge has some even more niche uses. You can rush a dense platform, and then Bat Swarm them to keep your mobility up. I found it particularly useful to do this at Dual Ghost Pirates' bottom platform. Shield Charge is the skill left unmaxed as it's the least significant.
I went to Red Nose Pirates 3 at around 75 and was 3~4HKOing with level 1 Moonlight Slash. Moved to DGP at around 90 since I started killing faster than spawn. I've only ever used potions to see what my max damage was.
Execution is your primary attack in 4th job. Armor Break is actually completely useless until it is maxed. 1 point is for pomegranates and giggles, honestly. Overwhelming Power provides the next highest increase in damage after Execution. Then Advanced Desperado Mastery. Defense Expertise provides the same bonus as Armor Break but is passive. Armor Break will help party members at bosses, but on regular monsters it may not be worthwhile since you need to use it each time they spawn. Bloody Imprison is Dark Bind. If you don't need Dark Bind, get Shield Chasing first. Shield Chasing is actually a 1.14x increase in overall damage output after maxing it compared to 1 point. If you don't boss, Shield Chasing comes before Defense Expertise and Armor Break as well.
If you need to hit more targets than Execution can, use Moonlight Slash. Armor Break is too pomegranatety. Shield Chasing is useful, but you have to be careful not to kill the monster it's targeting, or it will disappear immediately.
Reduce Overload reduces your max Overload count. Shield Chasing - Extra Target makes you hit up to four monsters, but only two Shields can hit a single target still.
If you're aiming for pure damage, Exceed - Enhancement, Bonus Chance, and Shield Chasing - Reinforce, Extra Target.
Thousand Sword isn't actually beneficial to %/s or hits/s.
Thanks to Fiel for the images, and Locked for being a wiener.
Thanks to Even for pointing out how Reduce Overload and Shield Chasing - Extra Target work.
Thanks to Encyclopedic for the cooldown on Forbidden Contract.
My most sensible interpretation about Reduce Overload is that it reduces the max Overload count, so basically you have increased HP recovery, and you have more instances of HP recovery... if that is so important to you. But we'll wait for more data, shall we?
Is 1 point in Defence Break just for that 1% increase in nett damage, or do you feel it's worth it for it's exceptional mob-attacking ability? I don't get the pomegranates and giggles part...
hadriel Wrote:My most sensible interpretation about Reduce Overload is that it reduces the max Overload count, so basically you have increased HP recovery, and you have more instances of HP recovery... if that is so important to you. But we'll wait for more data, shall we?
Is 1 point in Defence Break just for that 1% increase in nett damage, or do you feel it's worth it for it's exceptional mob-attacking ability? I don't get the pomegranates and giggles part...
Hadriel
It's to have a green attack that looks weird and is slow.
I've re-evaluated 2nd job's build since Exceed: Demon Strike has such little benefit from Booster. There is a spam delay that booster doesn't cut from. It also seems to have gotten slower from KMST's values, though it's still stupidly strong and fast compared to other jobs. The movement speed without walking is about 290%.
I've also added the damage formula.
Armor Break is very marginally useful if you ever run into more than 4 mobs (like 6+) and you don't want to reset your Execution stage. You're very much more likely to OHKO with Execution, so 2HKO on the group, though, which means you'd need to be able to OHKO with Armor Break for it to be actually useful. It's got good horizontal range so you can use it on stuff you OHKO with it, but that's rare.
What items are they restricted to in the warrior category other than the weapon and shield?
Demon Avenger Skill Build - Dark Link - 2013-03-30
zantgx Wrote:Can DA wear Neos items? Like the Top and Bottom?
Yes
Quote:What items are they restricted to in the warrior category other than the weapon and shield?
Nothing. They ignore stat requirements on Warrior gear.
Quote:Blood Contract: A blood pact causes your damage to be based on your health. Demons authority allows him to wear warrior equipment while ignoring their stat requirements.
JoeTang Wrote:I am not 100% sure what Reduce Overload does.
In your beginner book you have a skill that reduces 1% healing on you drain skill for ever 2 charges on your exceed bar. This means that one you reached 20 charges you drain skill will not work (or rather be very weak), but if you add this hyper skill your max charges will cap at 18 and once you reach that, the healing will still be better than 20 charges. I've found it most useful when Im using non-exceed skills (armor break etc) for the healing effect, since using an exceed skill will just take away more % hp anyway.
JoeTang Wrote:I think Shield Chasing - Extra Target makes you shoot 4 Shields instead of 2 which means its damage is doubled since if there's only one target, all the shields will hit it instead.
No it doesnt, it only allows you to hit 4 mobs with them instead of 2.
This is by testing both hypers in EMS, you can ignore this post if you had different results in KMS or already know this from before.
Even Wrote:In your beginner book you have a skill that reduces 1% healing on you drain skill for ever 2 charges on your exceed bar. This means that one you reached 20 charges you drain skill will not work (or rather be very weak), but if you add this hyper skill your max charges will cap at 18 and once you reach that, the healing will still be better than 20 charges. I've found it most useful when Im using non-exceed skills (armor break etc) for the healing effect, since using an exceed skill will just take away more % hp anyway.
No it doesnt, it only allows you to hit 4 mobs with them instead of 2.
This is by testing both hypers in EMS, you can ignore this post if you had different results in KMS or already know this from before.
On another note, I'm not sure which hypers to take.
I was thinking about all Exceed hypers, Refract Evil - Immunity Enhance 2 (what does resistance against elements even do and is it worth picking 1 to get that) and Shield Chasing - Reinforce.
Encyclopedic Wrote:Forbidden Contract has a cooldown of 90 seconds.
On another note, I'm not sure which hypers to take.
I was thinking about all Exceed hypers, Refract Evil - Immunity Enhance 2 (what does resistance against elements even do and is it worth picking 1 to get that) and Shield Chasing - Reinforce.
Any changes or suggestions?
Elemental Resistance reduces damage taken from any damage that is elemental, i.e. not physical. Status Resistance is more important, especially since Demon Avenger can heal itself so easily and damage like that is never that big of an issue to begin with.
I noticed how in the summary for 4th job skill build, you have adv. desperado mastery maxed first, then enhance exceed. But in the actual detailed build, you have enhance exceed first, then adv. desperado mastery. Which one is the better (revised?) one?
ChubbiHubbi Wrote:I noticed how in the summary for 4th job skill build, you have adv. desperado mastery maxed first, then enhance exceed. But in the actual detailed build, you have enhance exceed first, then adv. desperado mastery. Which one is the better (revised?) one?
It should be Mastery before Enhanced Exceed.
Thanks for pointing that out, it should be fixed now.
[COLOR="#0000FF"]I don't think adding mw is necessary even if there's no more skills to add :f6:
considering that DA adds all to HP, there's no extra stats at lv 200/250 to add to str.. Renders mw useless.
Might as well just save your mesos instead of buying the skillbooks ._.
JoeTang Wrote:It should be Mastery before Enhanced Exceed.
Thanks for pointing that out, it should be fixed now.
Thanks! Just wanna say, thanks for all the work you do to guide us. All your work had been tremendous help to us (for me at least), and I've read all your work that you posted on SP. Greatly appreciated and keep up the phenomenal work!