Demonology Strategy

[Gropalopagus]

I've only beaten the game as an alchemist so far, and I've been playing around with the demonologist now.

So far Demons as units suck. The tier 2 sacrificial summon is alright and the tier 3 sucks, I've not gotten the titan yet.

I found more use in goblin brawlers with: Pawn demon (+6 damage), demonic weapons (+12 vs higher tier), and Shaman berserk buff (+6) allows them to punch far above their weight class and they're so cheap to replace you don't have to care about them.

I often follow my main stack around with extra slaves (with pawn demons) that I can throw at the enemy to soften them and the first time I had to take a tower mage out I just spawned 4 stacks of gargoyles to do the same, no upfront cost and 1 mana a day for their short lives is cheap.

The cult that gives +1gp per week to any demons it makes can explode your economy if you keep making cheap pawns with it and putting them in militia.

My tower is almost never not recruiting troops.

Doing all of this still feels weaker than alchemist.

Can anyone add some useful advice to make my demonology suck less?

[Kaysoky]

Demonology's power curve increases slower than the Alchemist (which has the steepest power curve).

Originally posted by Gropalopagus:

My tower is almost never not recruiting troops.

In general, this is how you play the Demonologist. It is probably the mainclass that encourages investing in additional hiring slots, reduced hiring time, and starting XP.

For me, the endgame is usually getting to a max-level Paradox demon and either making it a greater demon or possessing an item with it and giving it to an Apprentice, which will let the Apprentice execute any enemy (including titans).

[Gropalopagus]

Is the demon titan any good?

[Sixtus]

I played twice with demonoloy and there are some very good combinations of cults and demons (some of the cults I only discovered the second time, it's really worth it to convert the cities). E. g. there is a cult which gives extra health, one which gives extra elemenal/death/white-damage etc., together with the demons which give the same kind of bonus this gets really strong; and than the extra damage from the demonic spellbook etc. And the demons you can call/convert with the spellbook are quite good, too - if you convert the damage with spells as you need them, it gets really nice.

[Stephanos]

Originally posted by Sixtus:

I played twice with demonoloy and there are some very good combinations of cults and demons (some of the cults I only discovered the second time, it's really worth it to convert the cities). E. g. there is a cult which gives extra health, one which gives extra elemenal/death/white-damage etc., together with the demons which give the same kind of bonus this gets really strong; and than the extra damage from the demonic spellbook etc. And the demons you can call/convert with the spellbook are quite good, too - if you convert the damage with spells as you need them, it gets really nice.

yes it tooks me a second run too for realize other things...
please explain me the conversion damage with spell part!....thanks
I only knew that runes can converts damage
ps if you combine the same two lesser demons crafted by two different cults the combinations will change

[Sixtus]

Originally posted by Stephanos:

yes it tooks me a second run too for realize other things...
please explain me the conversion damage with spell part!....thanks
I only knew that runes can converts damage
ps if you combine the same two lesser demons crafted by two different cults the combinations will change

You have certain spells which can change the damage you deal (for a mana cost) - the most important is Holy Weapons for white damage, but in the different schools there are different conversions to other damage types; you can buy some of the spells, too, in the cities, I think Holy Weapon is in Sevenkeep. I really love the tier 2 demons who spit fire converted to white damage, two or three of them in one stack and most of the enemies are toast; even if it is a little bit strange to have demons with "holy" weapons :-) And the second playthrough I really liked the possessed weapons and items for the heroes, the heroes get quite insane with them.

[Gropalopagus]

I was relying more on the mortal enemies because of the mind slots; halberds with 50% life steal and +12 damage from pawn and berserk, and another +12 from demonic weapons for boss fights is dirty.

The white damage buff on them would have been awesome too, I should play with this more.

[AndreanDW]

demonology strategy for me:
1st cheap army that fights for gold and mana
2nd get the cult where you don't have to pay upkeep for your army
3rd buy tier 3 armies that cost no upkeep and fight for gold and mana
4th same with lots of armies
5th do whatever you want with the gold, mana, research points, artefacts, ...

[Krosis Priest]

Based on my playthrough as demonologist when the DLC came out, it's the ultimate late game class. The beginning is rough as you have limited resources and nothing to help you gather them (unlike the other classes), but once you unlock amalgamation, the top tier demons you can craft are just insane.

(I also found Rook spam to be somewhat OP, you can have lots of tanky units at a fairly low cost)

[CosmicAcidGuru]

I find Demonologist easiest on economy. At the start I mostly build Vulture demons that will soon give me +3 gold. Once they are maxed and the goblin vessel died, I give them to workers.

I wait with the Smoker until I can craft 3 or 4 of them and then give them all to the same army. That way I can level up 4 of them with only 1 army getting poison fumes. Best situation is if you have a unit with cure in that army. Just make sure the same unit gets 5 kill shots on undead. Once the others also maxed out, release them with Eager Vessel and distribute them so each army has one.

Make sure to deposit cheap (slave) troops near cities and shops to always buy rations and finon beer. You need plenty of those to level up your gourmand demon. It's a very strong demon because it works on any opponent type and not just mortals. "Refill Shops" spell is your friend.

The Chaos shrine is great for recruiting slaves. I would often just recruit 5 slaves per day, keep the ones that get the +2research buff and use the other ones to explore or sacrifice them for the Pawn and the Paradox

I noticed in most games there is this moment where I felt I have enough demons. I have 3 of most types in my inventory and get lazy and stop crafting more. But in each and every game, I ran into a demon shortage several weeks later. So don't waste crafting slots. Especially in a situation where you can recruit 5 slaves per day, you run through a lot of Pawn and Paradox demons.

[Gropalopagus]

Thanks for all the advice guys.

[=(FGR)=Sentinel]

If you have both DLCs, the demonologist is actually the best "class" for dreaming spells. The reason for this is that dreams and demons use the same slot, which "sounds" like a downside at first until you realize that a number of dreams give the host/dreamer at least one item slot, sometimes two. If you don't necessarily care about greater demons (or enable the setting to get a second crafting class later in the game and grab artificer) you can level demons, bind them to artifacts, and then give them to your troops as if they were heroes or apprentices. If you have a ton of gear to hand out or know tricks to get a consistent windfall of crafting ingredients, turning your tower into an assembly line for demonically possessed weapons and armor to hand out to sleepwalking followers is both hilarious as an image and effective in practice... At least in my experience.