PDK build?

[DANTEIL]

I would be interested in getting some build ideas for a PDK Warlock. I've seen a couple of people mention that PDK is a popular choice for Warlock, and I tried to make one, but since I've never done PDK before (much less Warlock, obviously) I felt like I didn't really know what I was doing. I have played him through some quests and it seemed okay but not great, so before I level up much further I'd like to know what some of the better options are in case I might need to start over.

For my Warlock (1st life, 32pt), I kept the 1 Ftr from PDK and took 14 Warlock, Fey pact, most points in Charisma and Strength (and Con), SWF feats for shortswords (I have other characters with a surplus of shortswords). I always have trouble deciding on Skill points, but I put a lot into Perform (despite being cross-class) and Concentration, Spellcraft and UMD. I put most AP into Enlightened Spirit so far.

Any must have choices to make this kind of thing work? The Blast seemed reasonably potent but the Aura plus melee combo felt less effective. And the lack of self-healing was nervewracking since I am used to that on other characters. Other ideas appreciated.

[richieelias27]

The Aura+melee on a PDK can suck a golf ball through 50 feet of garden hose.... At least until you get into epics and gain access to godly weapons and the Dreadnaught tree.

For now your blasts are going to be much more potent. Best to go with Tainted Scholar until then.

PDK doesn't really need STR at all. Get it up to 10 if that even. Better off pumping CHA, then CON, and getting INT to 10 or 12.

As for Perform, I would bring it up to 1 (so it can be buffed with items) and leave it at that unless you have the spare skillpoints. (and if you do have spare skillpoints... consider going lower on INT for more CON)

Since you already lost out on the capstone enhancements for being a pure Warlock, I would suggest mixing in either a single Cleric level at some point for +15 light spellpower and +2% crit from Divine Disciple, or a single Wizard level for free(ish) invisibility, which works great when cast immediately after mass confusion, and Eldritch Strike.

Alternatively you could go for a second level of Fighter for the free feat. It's up to you whether you feel like you need it or not.

Yet another alternative: Add 4 bard for 15/4/1 Lock/Bard/Fighter. This will give you:
Melee that doesn't suck
+20 Sonic spellpower via Loud and Clear
Perform as a class skill (take bard at second level)

And you still get to keep the phasing abundant step you get at 15 fey warlock. This is an incredibly useful skill. You do however lose knockdown immunity, 3d6 light damage, and aura hitting every 3 seconds instead of 2... that could be a big deal.

[Rhysem]

FvS better than Cleric. +30 light/fire/alignment/physical SP and +2% crit. Temp SP if you had 2 levels, but don't, you want 18 warlock.

[richieelias27]

FvS better than Cleric. +30 light/fire/alignment/physical SP and +2% crit. Temp SP if you had 2 levels, but don't, you want 18 warlock.

Temp SP does not work on EB. At all. And neither does Scourge. In fact, nothing that is marked "on spell cast" works with EB because it is not "technically" a spell. All you get is the +2% crit

It *might* work on the cleaves from ES, but I have not tested that personally.

[Rhysem]

Temp SP does not work on EB. At all. And neither does Scourge. In fact, nothing that is marked "on spell cast" works with EB because it is not "technically" a spell. All you get is the +2% crit

It *might* work on the cleaves from ES, but I have not tested that personally.

It worked to build charge and temp sp on llammalland. I can't tell you if it was the cleaves or the aura though. I also can't tell you if it was applying, because statistically 30 sp is not much at that level and the xd6 variability is high.

[DANTEIL]

Thank you for the helpful responses. I will take a 2nd look at the build I have so far and decide if I need to scratch and start again (I suspect I will...)

[richieelias27]

It worked to build charge and temp sp on llammalland. I can't tell you if it was the cleaves or the aura though. I also can't tell you if it was applying, because statistically 30 sp is not much at that level and the xd6 variability is high.

Just tested myself. Scourge never procs from EB, temp spell does (looking at the enhancement I can see why though, it is on spell damage, not on spell cast).

Here is where it gets odd....

The Aura DOES proc scourge... So presumably a great many other things that people have been complaining don't work with EB, will likely work with the aura. Good to know.

[Red_Knight]

Just tested myself. Scourge never procs from EB, temp spell does (looking at the enhancement I can see why though, it is on spell damage, not on spell cast).

Here is where it gets odd....

The Aura DOES proc scourge... So presumably a great many other things that people have been complaining don't work with EB, will likely work with the aura. Good to know.

I know the shirdai (or however it's spelled) "on offensive spell" procs were working with both eldrich blast and eldrich aura on Lam. I would occasionally see 100 damage from some oddball element that my blasts don't deal. One time I saw my aura tick for 100 damage from EVERY element at once when it only did acid, force, and light damage normally.

This is why I'm sort of thinking about twisting in Prism and Rainbow regardless of which epic destiny I actually settle on. If I can get enough fate points, maybe eventually twisting in double rainbow too. If I can manage that, maybe see about renaming the character Skittles?

[richieelias27]

I know the shirdai (or however it's spelled) "on offensive spell" procs were working with both eldrich blast and eldrich aura on Lam. I would occasionally see 100 damage from some oddball element that my blasts don't deal. One time I saw my aura tick for 100 damage from EVERY element at once when it only did acid, force, and light damage normally.

This is why I'm sort of thinking about twisting in Prism and Rainbow regardless of which epic destiny I actually settle on. If I can get enough fate points, maybe eventually twisting in double rainbow too. If I can manage that, maybe see about renaming the character Skittles?

Yep, shiradi doesnt proc "on cast" it procs on damage. It also procs on ranged attack. One of those two makes it work with EB I guess. At this point who knows what is working as intended and what isn't... I'm willing to bet the Aura procs Empyrean magic and Strength of Spirit as well (I hear EB does not), but can't test it myself.

I also learned during my testing that EB kills block remnant drops.... so that kinda sucks.

[DANTEIL]

So sidestepping for the moment the discussion about EDs and warlock that I don't understand, I just have a couple of followup questions/comments, after taking a look again at my character last night:


For now your blasts are going to be much more potent. Best to go with Tainted Scholar until then.

Yea, I'm a bit disappointed in the aura, after being initially excited about it (melee + radiating waves of death sounded appealing in theory). Will try TS instead.


PDK doesn't really need STR at all. Get it up to 10 if that even. Better off pumping CHA, then CON, and getting INT to 10 or 12.

So this is assuming that I'm using the PDK Cormyrean Knight Training CH for damage, yes? Does STR become a complete dump stat then? And INT for skill points, I'm guessing.


As for Perform, I would bring it up to 1 (so it can be buffed with items) and leave it at that unless you have the spare skillpoints. (and if you do have spare skillpoints... consider going lower on INT for more CON)

This doesn't make sense to me. Doesn't Perform help for the Sonic portion of the Fey blast? Why would I leave that at 1? Regarding your other suggestion, though, I do like the idea of adding a level (or 2, or 4?) of Bard for this (and SWF swashbuckler? if I have enough AP; but perhaps I'm still thinking too melee-oriented if I'm not going to be using the aura so much), although it seems a pity that would cap the amount of Warlock I get to try.

[richieelias27]

This doesn't make sense to me. Doesn't Perform help for the Sonic portion of the Fey blast? Why would I leave that at 1? Regarding your other suggestion, though, I do like the idea of adding a level (or 2, or 4?) of Bard for this (and SWF swashbuckler? if I have enough AP; but perhaps I'm still thinking too melee-oriented if I'm not going to be using the aura so much), although it seems a pity that would cap the amount of Warlock I get to try.

It absolutely does! But if you are only getting half ranks into perform, is that worth the 2 extra points in INT to get such a meager boost in damage? After all, pact damage probably accounts for less than a fourth of your overall damage from EB all things considered. The reason you need at least that single point into perform is because you cannot boost it with items+CHA without it. Don't get me wrong, Perform is certainly worth boosting, but not at the cost of CON in my opinion. Better to let it be boosted by items and your Charisma.

Bard: go minimum 3 levels for swashbuckling or pick another class, in my opinion. Taking it *just* for full ranks in perform is not worth it at all. If you go with bard, you do so in this build because you want to be melee focused. Going bard also changes the game with the Perform skill. Now you can put full ranks into it, and there are several bard abilities with sonic damage boosted by spellpower. This does mean you will miss out on the level 18 core ability in ES though, and it is very nice. Keep in mind that a swashbuckling melee bard in epic levels is very likely to out-dps your eldritch blasts. In this case, you will get more bang for your buck by running the aura and slapping things in the face.

And yes, you already said you wanted to use shortswords, and sicce shortswords benefit from the PDK Charisma to attack and damage you can completely dump STR. Just make sure you always have an item that boosts STR as much as possible. You do not want to get hit with ray of enfeeblement and be left helpless.

[adrian69]

I would be interested in getting some build ideas for a PDK Warlock. I've seen a couple of people mention that PDK is a popular choice for Warlock, and I tried to make one, but since I've never done PDK before (much less Warlock, obviously) I felt like I didn't really know what I was doing. I have played him through some quests and it seemed okay but not great, so before I level up much further I'd like to know what some of the better options are in case I might need to start over.

For my Warlock (1st life, 32pt), I kept the 1 Ftr from PDK and took 14 Warlock, Fey pact, most points in Charisma and Strength (and Con), SWF feats for shortswords (I have other characters with a surplus of shortswords). I always have trouble deciding on Skill points, but I put a lot into Perform (despite being cross-class) and Concentration, Spellcraft and UMD. I put most AP into Enlightened Spirit so far.

Any must have choices to make this kind of thing work? The Blast seemed reasonably potent but the Aura plus melee combo felt less effective. And the lack of self-healing was nervewracking since I am used to that on other characters. Other ideas appreciated.

I am running a melee hybrid 17/3 ftr (for 25 unneeded PRR) GOO. In retrospect now, I'd like to keep the feats, but I'd would go back and change one lvl to FvS for 2% crit and DM and have 60 str and char build. Anyway, I took PA (probably switch to Precision) TWF Line (THF doesn't work so well because you're procing force, (fire, acid, or sonic), and possibly alignment, so TWF/SWF is better for stats, which a lock, as with any caster is dependent on. Then Max/Emp/Extend, unsure about quicken for this build honestly, so 1% spell crit of evo DCs are probably best for other feats. Mainly in Radiant, Consume and that other DoT in Fiend, and Tainted Scholar. It's not as OP as what people want to really think. There are things that just don't work correctly, like being able neg level red and purple named. It's just the first thought out class since Monk.

[ThomasHunter]

The thread that I wanted to start when I got home tonight! PDK and Warlock! This is more of a theory build right now, but was considering SWF over TWF (can you still SWF with a long sword and an orb?).

So, 8 feats in heroics. I'm thinking: SWF, ISWF, GSWF, Maximize, Empower, Precision, IC:Slash, SF:Evoc.

I then would take OC at 21, PSWF and PTWF and Ruin in the 26-28 feat slots.

I would definitely go Fey pact with CHR-to-damage.

Now, I did try and LR my capped FvS on the test server and made him into a similar toon. The damage in the dojo seemed better than what he currently does. However, then I tried a level 4 toon using the aura and it was awful. Pfft.

One more question, is SWF >> TWF for this type of build? Would I get the CHR bonus with GSWF? I'm assuming that is a "yes", but unsure.

Thanks for the help!