The purpose of this guide is to show you how to get your Felguard, the minion master of damage, back on the right path for Dungeons and Raids in Cataclysm. It’s going to teach you how to handle his CC breaks, get him to manage his mana, and most importantly: keep him from causing your entire group to WIPE!
Wait, so you mean other Demonology Warlocks have noticed a change in their Felguard's behavior, too!?
Affirmative.
Ever since the Shattering, Demonology Warlocks everywhere have noticed a disobedient streak among their most trusted minions. We’ve seen Warlocks being kicked from dungeon groups and other classes are even blaming “bad domination and enslavement skills” on the Warlocks themselves! Felguards throughout Azeroth seem to have gone on strike and are blatantly disobeying their masters (even more then before).
While some Warlocks have became so overwhelmed that they have resorted to abandonment or "re-speccing" as labeled by members of D.P.S. M.O.A.R, (Demon Protection Services for Minions Opposed of and Against Re-speccing), more devoted and headstrong Demonology Warlocks have decided they’re willing to do whatever it takes to rehabilitate the old nature of their beloved demon.
"What happened to your friends?"
So what could have caused such a colossal upheaval in everyday demonology life? Goblin Associate Professor Greenly, a renowned Professor at G.O.L.D, (Goblin Organization for Learning about Demons) has been conducting research and believes that the upturn of the worlds elements, combined with the destruction wrought by the Aspect of Death, Deathwing – could have actually caused a major chemical imbalance in the brains of a large percentage of Azeroth’s demons, particularly the Felguards.
“Acute Demonic Disobedience Disorder (or ADDD for short) may affect certain areas of the minion’s brain that allow things like: basic single target focusing, planning and utilizing charges, understanding crowd control, and even mana utilization” Professor Greenly states.
Although the Professors at G.O.L.D believe that with a larger research fund, they would be able to develop a breakthrough-controlled substance that would allow Warlocks to have physical control of our demons once again – reporters here at “How to Train Your Demon” believe there’s a more “coin purse friendly” alternative to gaining control. We believe that with a fel-iron fist, combined with perseverance and a little caffeine, we can once again enslave our ruthless minions, reigning as Masters of Demonic Domination once more. (Ahem… Queue evil cackle?)
"A paltry task."
Before we begin learning about training our minion – the most important ingredient for success is something we mentioned in the previous section: Caffeine. (For your nerves, of course.)
While studying the behaviors of the Felguard, the HTTYD crew chose Starfire Espresso as their caffeine of choice, and made sure to keep a nice supply handy while embarking on this perilous endeavor.
All right, now we are ready to learn about each of our Felguards abilities! This will help them make the right decisions (with our guidance) in future Dungeon and Raid groups.
Legion Strike: This is your Felguards basic damage ability causing additional damage to its melee attack. A sweeping attack that does the Felguard's weapon damage plus ((($SP * 0.50) * 2) * 0.264 + X) divided among all targets within 6 yards, and also wounds the Felguard's current target reducing the effectiveness of any healing received by 25% for 6 sec.
Pursuit:This is what causes Felguard to charge after, and catch up to his enemies. Charge an enemy, instantly causing weapon damage and increasing the Felguard's movement speed by 30% for 6 sec.
Axe-Toss:Axe Toss is Felguards long ranged - instant stun ability that has a relatively short cool down. The Felguard hurls his axe, stunning the target for 4 sec.
Felstorm:Felstorm does a very high amount of damage, generating a high amount of AOE threat. The Felguard recklessly swings its Axe, striking all nearby targets within 8 yards for its weapon damage plus X, and continuing to perform this action every 1 sec for 6 sec. The Felguard cannot perform any other abilities during Felstorm.
Avoidance:Avoidance is Felguards passive ability; it helps mitigate incoming AoE damage. Reduces the damage your summoned demon takes from non-player area of effect attacks by an additional 90%.
Demonic Empowerment: Demonic Empowerment is a talent choice in the demonology tree. When activated, the ability for Felguard is to break all stun, snare and movement impairing effects, making the Felguard immune to them for 15 sec.
The Pursuit of Happiness, and How to Take it Away from Your Felguard.
When dealing with a demon effected with ADDD, one of the major observations researchers discovered was that the demons behavior is changed drastically when they are incapable of using their abilities at free will. (So don’t enable them, and don’t trust them!) No matter how “mature” you Felguard claims to be, the matter isn’t in his hands – nor yours – it’s a disorder, and it has to be controlled. So without further adieu – take pursuit off of his auto-cast. In a recent case study conducted at HTTYD, 98% of the time Felguard was on passive, he would still randomly charge mobs when pursuit was left on auto-cast. (The other 2% of the time, he was listening to his records, backwards.)
Another good example of why you should take the ability to use pursuit away from your beloved demon: Felstorm has an 8 yard range.
Here is a hypothetical scenario that obviously never could have happened to any of the author's here at HTTYD: You are about to have your trusted Felguard break out Felstorm on the small trash mob your group is currently focused on, while the caster mobs sit feared and hexed a safe distance away. Lets say Felguard's ADDD gets the best of him and he charges the feared target at full speed – AoEing not only the caster mob, but the nice group of elites that are near as well. Before you can even type, “ZOMG SORRY MY FELGUARD HAS ADDD!!" – you're kicked from the group.
Again, we must stress the importance of taking pursuit off auto-cast; it’s for the best. For other times, such as soloing or safe areas – we have created a macro that will train your demon to charge, Felstorm, and axe throw. Bind this to a safe key – and use with caution. This will have your Felguard charge to mob, Felstorm, and then Axe Throw - just for good measure.
FG, Attack!: (Careful where you FS, don't break CC!)
Learning to Felstorm: Here is one of our HTTYD reporters demonstrating the correct etiquette of the Felstorm.
With a little training and practice, your Felguard can perfect the art of the Felstorm too!
Learning to let go: Dismiss your demon.
This next training session isn’t really something that has to do with your minions ADDD as much as it has to do with their overall fear of heights. That’s right, heights. He’s not jumping 5ft down from that ledge with you – he doesn’t care that you can skip a bunch of trash by taking a shortcut because he’ll find a better way down that doesn't involve this "jumping" everyone always talks about. Let's look back on an experience a warlock recently confided to us on the agreement we keep the story anonymous:
“It was only a short drop, maybe 7 or 8 feet, I thought he came with us but apparently Felguard had snuck away sometime during the trash pull preparation. Just as we started on the first mob the tank noticed Felguard in full pursuit towards us. To our dismay – he brought friends…”
After reviewing the information from this terribly shaken warlock, we were able to piece together what happened here: Felguard made the decision he didn’t want to jump, but by innocently sneaking away and looking for a safer path, he ended up having to go around the whole back section of that area. This resulted in Felguard making many friends along the way, coming out the front and bringing all the new acquaintances he had made, as well as the boss of that dungeon section. Upon seeing his master being attacked, he charged full pursuit to assist, ignoring the obvious harm his way, and brought his new friends right to the group.
Please, he wants you to dismiss him before you jump down from any heights that are more then 5ft drops. Don’t force him to make horrible decisions, just banish him to the nether for a brief moment and call him back when the coast is clear.
Here is a macro we made for the Warlock who had to endure that horrible experience - and after teaching it to her Felguard we are happy to hear her minion is now on the path to recovery!
FG, Return!:Easy Macro to dismiss your pet, then instant summon back. (You can also choose to remove the “Felguard, Return!” part of the macro, but we found it nifty.)
When discussing Mana Utilization it's important to bring up the fact that we all probably put Demonic Empowerment into a macro to be on CD during WoTLK. Well that was good then – but then is not now - and at 1233 Mana cost per use – it's not something to be used as ready. Sure, some can argue that there are plenty of cases where a stun immunity here or there is useful – but here at HTTYD we believe in taking any unnecessary abilities and effects away from your Felguard leads them to a more stress free atmosphere. So take that macro out and use your Demonic Empowerment only when needed most.
Speaking of unnecessary abilities, one thing many Warlocks have probably noticed while soloing or questing is that your Felguard seems to be running out of mana a lot more then usual. We decided to monitor a few random Felguards in their natural habitat (with their warlocks permission of course) and quickly discovered that they like to use “cleave” at every possible opportunity allowed – sometimes even when there wasn't a second target to hit! It's advisable to just turn off auto-cast cleave if you are farming/soloing enemies without a second target as this will greatly improve his mana utilization over an extended period of time which can help get more mileage out of your demon before a required break.
“You live... For now.”
While member's at D.P.S M.O.A.R are excited about the astonishing outcome of newly trained ADDD Felguards – your loyal researchers and reporters here at HTTYD are still working diligently to discover new ways to efficiently train your favored companion. The most important thing we would like our Warlock trainers to understand is that your demon's behavior is not your fault. ADDD is a problem that effects your Felguard's behavior, and while the disease cannot be cured as of now, it can be controlled with a little training.
Misc Training Tips and Macros:
The Felguard Yo-Yo:(Attack - Yo!, Come back.)
/petattack [target=pettarget,noexists]
/petfollow [target=pettarget,exists]
dont have a lock but its definitely good to know as our guild locks seem to be having problems with their pet. he just runs around smacking random things it seems. i enjoyed someone else getting blamed (i play a hunter) for a change.
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