Soloing with a Succubus
I’ve been playing Thaos almost exclusively for awhile now, and he’s finally getting to a reasonably high level. Of course, I’m not nearly powerful enough to engage in PvP outside of the battlegrounds, but I’m definitely getting closer. Perhaps the strangest aspect of this, I find, is that I have come to rely on my succubus more than my voidwalker when soloing. This surprises me because I’m not just soloing monsters of the same caliber as I would be with a voidwalker; if you can believe it, I’m actually soloing them more easily.
The real lesson of the succubus is that the best defense is a good offense. Whereas the voidwalker can hold hate and take hits like there’s no tomorrow, he lacks a great deal of attack power. When using a voidwalker, you essentially have to wait for your spells to finish off the opponent. This may be a safer process, since the aggro stays off of you, but it’s also a great deal slower.
On the other hand, a succubus is an all-offense creature. Her usefulness is very limited when you first earn her around 20th level because she does too much damage and has no ability to reduce her hate. Thus, she has a tendency to get herself killed a lot. However, around the mid-20′s she acquires Soothing Kiss, a wonderful little ability that lets her slough off the aggro. At this point, she becomes the summon of choice for soloing. Sure, you’ll get hit, but your opponent won’t live long enough to kill you.
My combat sequence goes something like this. I open the fight with Curse of Agony; it’s a good choice as an opener because it’s your longest-duration damage-over-time spell and doesn’t draw a lot of hate right away. While the monster is closing, I sick my succubus on it and start casting Corruption. The succubus lays into the monster with a simultaneous attack and Lash of Pain, instantly drawing the hate onto herself. This gives me just enough time to finish Corruption and throw out Immolation. At this point, the monster turns on me, the real threat. By now, though, it only has a few seconds left to live. I whip out my wand and start wasting it.
Using this sequence against opponents three levels higher than me, I might be out half of my life by the end of the battle. My succubus is usually unharmed, having already healed what few wounds she took by the end of the battle. More importantly, though, the target is dead within less than 24 seconds. I know this because my Curse of Agony rarely if ever has enough time to run its full course. The gains on time are worth more than anything, especially when you’re grinding.
Given my recent success with her, I’m tempted to rebuild Thaos to maximize the capabilities of his succubus. After all, my current build doesn’t even devote a single point to Improved Succubus, and Improved Lash of Pain in the destruction line looks very sweet. Only time will tell, though, whether her usefulness persists into higher levels.