Demidos farming

[Widdershin]

I thought I'd post my experience of farming for Demidos for those trying to get it for themselves and can't afford the crazy auction house prices right now.

I've killed Demidos as a Hunter a few times solo, only because there seems little interest to kill him on my server (Turalyon EU) - despite letting people know he drops a valuable pet - so soloing seemed the only option for me.

On a side note: Demidos will spawn at all times, not just during the apexis daily. I've killed him a few times when the daily is elsewhere so don't let that put you off. I usually swing by the flight path to see if he's up and on my server he is. Anyway...

I found the best way (for me) is as a BM. This is partly because the aggro holds well, but also it's far easier to heal the pet than it is to heal myself, and it's good to have Demidos focussed on the pet instead of me - threat being a pain when any other spec.

The main issue with Demidos is his Demi ability. This reduces your health by 25% each time it triggers. I personally was unable to avoid this no matter where I stood. Line of sight issues didn't affect it so it made no sense to try and avoid it. There's no need to worry so much the first few times it hits, which is alarming because of the health loss. However, that health loss reduces each blast of Demi. An example of your health pool as a % for each blast illustrates how it slows down during later hits:

Start @ 100.00%
Blast 1 @ 75.00%
Blast 2 @ 56.25%
Blast 3 @ 42.19%
Blast 4 @ 31.64%
Blast 5 @ 23.73%
Blast 6 @ 17.80%
Blast 7 @ 13.35%
Blast 8 @ 10.01%
Blast 9 @ 7.51%

With self healing abilities they become very effective when you are at fairly low health, but it's also why it's imporant to keep the pet the main target. If you lose aggro with such low health then it's easy to get killed.

So Spirit Bond talent will keep you ticking over. In conjunction with that I also the Glyph of Liberation and then whenever Disengage is off cooldown I use that, ensuring that my back is against the rock near where you climb up. This makes sure I don't get out of range / fall off the cliff and assists the Spirit Bond in keeping me hovering around the 5% health mark throughout the majority of the fight. You could also use the Glyph of Animal Bond to help keep you up, although I personally didn't need it. You may also find Glyph of Mending to be useful to keep the pet alive as well.

I kept Counter Shot ready only for when Demidos used his 2nd ability, Shadow Spike, and was targetted at me. The pet can easily soak this up and with Mend Pet ticking away it's easily healed up so there's no need to risk the cooldown if the pet gets targetted.

The fight itself becomes a simple tank and spank. Just ensure you keep Disengaging whenever it's off cooldown and try not to panic when you see your health so low.

It took me around 5 kills to finally get the Servant of Demisos pet. I don't know if that's statistically good or not, but I was happy. Although this is primarily from a Hunter's perspective I hope some part of it helps others.

PS. If you are grouped with a healer and they aren't aware of how Demi works then you will want to explain this part. They will go into a mad panic and bleed out their mana trying to heal you and them and not realise they only need to top you up with a heal-over-time when you're at much lower health.

PPS. At my last kill I was at iLevel 628, but prior solo kills were at 613 - basically quest/mission gear, nothing special except for crafted iLevel 630 weapon.

[Waldorftm]

Thanks for this. I used the information in this to solo him earlier today.

[Klaital]

I soloed him a few times (prot warrior), got my pet on second try. It is not too hard, just need to time your interrupts well, as you need to avoid two shadow spikes in a row for the healing debuff to fall off, pummel and spell reflect on consecutive spikes works on that, then use shield barriers to deal with the rest of the spikes. I pretty much didn't use shield block at all the whole fight, spent all rage to barriers which was just enough to stay alive, using enraged regeneration and last stand to heal up on cd.

[Peanutty]

I hadn't gotten a chance to solo him until today (previously people would jump in once I pulled) but yes, it's fairly easy for a hunter to kill this guy and your advice about standing against a rock to heal via disengage was a great tip. I managed to keep my health above 20% through most of the fight and my pet at about 30%.

[Kyozu]

I've soloed demidos a few times on my bm monk, I didn't know how demi worked so I panicked quite often also, no pet after 3 kills, and can confirm demidos spawns when there is no corresponding apexis daily going on in the area.

[Beastlyserenity]

The first time I was camping for Demidos, I was sitting there with a gnome warlock next to me waiting for him to spawn around 1 am. I decided to make convo with the gnome lock while we waited, and he told me he had been waiting several hours, but hadn't seen it yet, and that he was watching family guy while he waited.

Eventually one hour passed and I think he got tired of me talking with him lol, so he decided to head out for the night, and literally not 2 minutes after he left. It popped! I was so shocked when it popped my adrenaline went into over drive. Since this was literally a few days after WoD release, I didn't know much about this mob or pet. I just knew I wanted it.

As soon as it popped I PMed my brother who was also on and is also a pet collector, but he is more of a PVPer.
I told him this mob was up and that he should come help me with it if he wants the pet. He asked me a bit about it, and then when he realized I was talking about the Demidos boss he replied with "Holy, that thing takes a group".

But I insisted that two of us could handle it at 100, I was a mage and he was a warrior.
So he came to me right away and we blew all our cool downs to try and take him down. It felt like an epic battle as we were both probably below 630 ilvl lol, I was barely 610 at the time. We were around 3-15 percent health the whole fight, so it felt crazy that we were staying up as long as we did! We used all sorts of cds and self healing lol.

When the mob hit around 30 percent life, a few random players came and helped to finish it off.
My brother and I both got the pet on our first kill! At the time this pet was going for 30-40k, but my bro said he wasn't going to sell it. It was a pretty cool kill and drop for both of us. Because of that sort of lucky late night kill, it's def a sentimental pet to me.

[Iibis]

Don't forget to check the in-game group finder if it's not up on your realm or if it's up and there's no one around (to help, or just otherwise). I managed to find a Demidos group for my alt shortly after I killed it on my own realm with some help. And don't forget to take a bodyguard follower with you. It's always when you're there that you think "Vivianne or someone might have been nice here".

[Cheeser]

As a blood DK you can solo him too, he stacks a debuff on you that reduces your healing recieved by 5% each time.
To clear this you just need to use army of the dead, they will taunt him for long enough for the debuff to wear off.
I usualy cast army at 12-15 stacks.

[Iibis]

I went to check on Demidos and it was up on my realm (pretty dead alliance side it seems, as it was up during prime time for the second night in a row and no one to be seen). I listed myself in the group finder and after a bit of waiting we had 7 people there since some people from my guild showed late interest. We killed Demidos and one guildie and one rogue who happened to be from the same server got the pet. I was waiting for my Vivianne to prepare a portal to my garrison when the rogue whispered if I got the pet already. When I said I didn't, he said he can give his drop to me. I was liek ":OO" in real life. He traded it and when I asked how much he would want for it, he replied that just the invite. He had the pet already. Can't believe how nice some people are! So now I'm a happy owner

[Cheeser]

I went to check on Demidos and it was up on my realm (pretty dead alliance side it seems, as it was up during prime time for the second night in a row and no one to be seen). I listed myself in the group finder and after a bit of waiting we had 7 people there since some people from my guild showed late interest. We killed Demidos and one guildie and one rogue who happened to be from the same server got the pet. I was waiting for my Vivianne to prepare a portal to my garrison when the rogue whispered if I got the pet already. When I said I didn't, he said he can give his drop to me. I was liek ":OO" in real life. He traded it and when I asked how much he would want for it, he replied that just the invite. He had the pet already. Can't believe how nice some people are! So now I'm a happy owner

Wow, lucky dude! Grats on the pet, he's very good