[Mobile] AFK Arena

Daimon is the new stud on the progression team, offering power-capping levels of thrash and leaving little more to be desired. However, Daimon's seeming ease of use also came with little rush to really understand what makes him so strong. If you are like me, you may have found yourself wondering what the difference was between the rounds that Daimon "went off" and when he randomly seems to fizzle out. The answer is actually good news for Daimon users as there do seem to be ways to improve his consistency.

**Mechanics**

The first mechanic to understand is that beneath the % based damage of his blood shield description is a hidden cap of ~700% of his attack, which in addition to the 300% base damage (which is the only part able to crit) comes to around 1000% total damage. The attack-dependent basis can easily be tested using faction auras, dura's blade, etc. Effectively, this means that the % based damage is rarely actually used in pve progression content. The significance of this is most pronounced when witnessing Daimon's damage with and without an active blood shield. The top left screenshot is the damage and shielding Daimon received (1799k) from using the blood shield ability on Rowan. Due to Lyca's haste and Rowan's energy pot, Daimon's ult used the bonus attack granted by his blood shield to drastically scale his damage to 5646k on Rowan, as well as similar damage on the other two targets. Note that without a currently active blood shield, the same 1799k damage would have occurred. Importantly, the total damage of blood shield, via skill or ult, feeds into his shield, which if broken, causes him to lose his bonus stats. This creates the primary difference between a Daimon that "goes off" and one that fizzles. Most of his damage is dependent on blood shield being active, and the power of his shield is dependent on his damage filtered through bonus attack. This can either be a virtuous cycle, or an engine you are constantly trying to reignite.

Another important finding is that the animation, both before and after blood shield has done its damage, may be critical. An animation interruption caused by certain skills, like Shemira's silence, seems to prevent the shield from ever forming along with the bonus stats. Most importantly, Daimon's ult seems able to interrupt the animation, costing him not only his shield, but any bonus stats that might be applied to the ult and followup shield. Allowing him to complete the animation can be the difference of ~3x the damage, shielding, and an increasing likelihood of continued snowballing. This creates a bit of a conundrum for the auto-ult setting, as Daimon is able to receive energy from the damage portion of the blood shield, which, if it completes his energy bar, results in exactly such an interruption. Ongoing testing and practice is needed before I would recommend trying to control him manually.

There is one variable in Daimon's blood shield damage mechanic that I do not yet understand, and this is represented in the sequence of screenshots, all taken from the same fight. In my first series of tests, blood shield was doing the same damage to all three targets: Rowan, Grez and Niru. If the game selected between two calculations, a max HP% or alternatively a cap based on Daimon's attack, then there must be some other variable that explains the inconsistent scaling against these three enemies. For example, Niru is taking the same damage in the second and fourth screenshots, but Rowan and Grez are taking more. If defense is making the difference, then it is odd that Lyca's debuff does not change the damage. This is an open problem if anyone has any insight or ideas on the subject. The answer may not have much of an impact, but mechanics for which I have no good theories drive me batty.

**Myths**

There are also a couple of common myths to either dispel or to update with an asterisk.

First, it needs to be made clear that Daimon does not steal stats when using blood shield. Instead, his SI simply grants him a % of the enemy's stats without diminishing them. This has been known for a while now, but I have encountered the steal myth several times since.

Second, the idea that Daimon is viable without much investment needs to be updated. It remains true that the primary difference between +20 and +30 daimon is consistency, but there is now more that we can say about this. The most important addition is that a +20 daimon is likely dependent on Lyca and/or Rowan to begin his power cycle early as his opening blood shield is likely to fall off before his first ult, a difference of not only about three times the total damage, but three times the shielding responsible for ongoing damage/shield cycles. I cannot yet cite the conditions under which Daimon +30 is able to ult with the blood shield still present, but suffice it to say that his window to do such is increased by 40%. Choices among alternative +30s are readily informed by what they will offer, not just for the hero or "their" team, but what rearrangements are made possible across teams. If this is able to free Lyca or Rowan for use in other teams, then it is a critical consideration.