Fighting styles on a Warlock

[DrWily]

As I intend to play a melee-type of warlock for my next life, I'd like help on the experts of this game (unbongwah, I'm looking at you) to help me figure out the pros and cons of each type of fighting styles.

I intend to go 18 Lock for Spirit form, using mostly Melee, spamming Eldritch Wave and Eldritch Burst when they aren't on cooldown and then sometimes using the normal EB or the Aura (it's apparently causing a TON of lag over here on Khyber). Getting the weapons/orbs/shields themselves aren't too much of a problem, with the exception of the raidloot coming up in U27.

Thanks in advance.

[unbongwah]

To be honest, pure caster warlocks are so powerful, I haven't been able to come up with a melee 'lock build I really like. Still, my first thought (if you're willing to burn an LR +1) was a PDK pure warlock using one of the CKT-compatible weapons: eSOS, Celestia, Nightmare are all viable options.

Stats: max CHA, good CON for Shining Through, high INT if you have Harper, enough DEX & STR for feat pre-reqs
Melee feats: combat style x3, Imp Crit, Overwhelming Crit, Power Atk or Precision
Caster feats: Max, Emp, Quicken, Epic Eldritch Blast, Ruin
Enhancements: 41 APs in ES (T5s, capstone), 28 APs SE (cores, T4s), 3 APs PDK (CKT), 8 APs Harper (KtA)

Let's Play "Theory-crafting a Melee'lock!"


PDK Melee'lock
Warlock 20
True Neutral Purple Dragon Knight


Stats
36pt Tome Level Up
---- ---- --------
Strength 8 +3 4: CHA
Dexterity 10 +3 8: CHA
Constitution 16 +3 12: CHA
Intelligence 15 +3 16: CHA
Wisdom 8 +3 20: CHA
Charisma 18 +3 24: CHA
28: CHA


Feats

1 : Single Weapon Fighting
1 PDK : Maximize Spell
1 Warlock: Pact: Fiend
3 : Empower Spell
6 : Quicken Spell
9 : Improved Single Weapon Fighting
12 : Precision
15 : Greater Single Weapon Fighting
18 : Improved Critical: Piercing
21 Epic : Overwhelming Critical
24 Epic : Epic Eldritch Blast
26 Destiny: Perfect Two Weapon Fighting
27 Epic : Ruin
28 Destiny: Epic Arcane Eldritch Blast


Enhancements (80 AP)

Purple Dragon Knight (3 AP)


Damage Boost

Cormyrean Knight Training



Enlightened Spirit (41 AP)


Eldritch Aura, Aura of Courage, Shape Vestments, Aura of Menace, Celestial Spirit, Ultimate Enlightenment

Resilience of Body I, Spiritual Defense III, Resilience of Soul I
Spiritual Bastion III, Power of Enlightenment III
Eldritch Burst III, Spiritual Ward III, Power of Enlightenment III
Medium Armor Proficiency, Spiritual Retribution III, Brilliance
Spirit Blast III, Beacon, Shining Through, Displacement



Soul Eater (28 AP)


Inhuman Understanding, Inhuman Nature, No Worse Fate, Inhuman Nature II

Consume, Taint the Blood, Hungry for Destruction I
Stricken III, Feeding Frenzy, Taint the Aura
Strickened Soul, Blood Feast, Burning Blood
Strickened Form, Greater Hunger, Steal Life Force III



Harper Agent (8 AP)


Agent of Good I

Harper Enchantment, Traveler's Toughness II
Know the Angles III




Destiny (24 AP)

Divine Crusader


Interrogation, Purge the Wicked, Charisma
Consecration III, Flames of Purity II
Sacred Ground, Empyrean Magic
No Regret, Crusade
Castigation, Heavenly Presence, Celestial Champion
Strike Down


Twists of Fate (30 fate points)


Energy Burst: Fire (Tier 4 Draconic)
Haste Boost (Tier 3 Dreadnought)
School Specialist: Necromancy (Tier 2 Magister)
Rejuvenation Cocoon (Tier 1 Primal)




Basically the idea is your AoE DPS comes from spell effects (ES Aura, Eldritch Burst, Spirit Blast, Consecration, Energy Burst) while your single-target DPS comes from SE SLAs (Consume, Stricken, Burning Blood), Ruin, and SWF melee (specced for s.swords). Healing comes from Steal Life Force + Sacred Ground + Rejuv Cocoon. I specced for Necromancy, but honestly I don't know what's the best school for Warlocks, so choose as you see fit. :o

BTW, do you know if Eldritch Burst and Spirit Blast count as Cleave atks for resetting Momentum Swing?

[skaught78]

Im currently a level 23 melee warlock. I went fiend for access to Rage spell. I'm single weapon fighting. I also took extend spell so my buffs last longer. was able to get all the feats i wanted and still have 1 extra, so I went proficiency bastard swords. I went enlightened spirit (obviously) with Legendary dreadnaught for EDs. Can't remember exactly where I allotted my build points but was something like:
16 STR
12 DEX (?)
16 CON
12 INT
8 WIS
16 CHA

Needed a slightly higher INT to add in balance for the single weapon fighting. Currently I am not even wearing a combustion or radiance item, but instead used all available slots to boost melee damage and defense. Generally I cut through stuff like butter. Defense is great. When the going gets tough, I hit my shining through for 15x H.P.
I consistently have the highest kill count in all quests I run with my guildies.

Strengths: Great DPS, Very self sufficient with Shining through. Can easily handle hordes of mobs with my aura and blasts.
weaknesses: Will saves suck! Though I could do a little more to boost them.
Very buff dependent. I have access to all the buffs I want, Rage, Jump, Haste, False life, Displacement, etc, but it takes a minute to cast them all. By the time I'm done casting everything, everyone else in party has ran ahead a bit. Also kind of a pain to have to rebuff every few minutes, and when they run out, I'm noticeably weaker. \

Overall though, Im having a lot of fun. Like I said above, I consistently have the highest kill counts. I've been having fun zerging through dungeons and getting as huge of a mob as I can to surround me, then I hit haste boost, shining through, and spam my bursts. Fun to watch the mountain of corpses build up around me. Cant wait until lvl 24 so I can squeeze in a radiance and combustion item!

[Red_Knight]

Cant wait until lvl 24 so I can squeeze in a radiance and combustion item!

Isn't Luminous Truth (from Servants of the Overlord, I think) a radiance/combustion quarter staff? I use it on my fiend warlock. Lets me get away with using utterdark blast to ignore needing an impulse item.

[fmalfeas]

I've currently got a 14 Warlock/2 paladin (I wanted to get a bladeforged Epic PL, and a Warlock PL, so seemed like a fair time to do both). He's set up for SWF (though there's an appalling lack of useful orbs until 17 at the earliest unless you can manage to get stupid-lucky and get a heroic Golden Orb of Death). Does a lot of damage with both melee and aura + blasts, has very good saves, Shining Through for piles of Temp HP, Adamantine Body for PRR, and since I don't actually tend to use spells in general, almost all his SP is free for use with Communion of Scribing. Though I'll admit that I kind wish I'd set up for THF or TWF, thanks to the orb thing.

[elvesunited]

Currently 18 PDK Warlock, 1 Fighter, 1 Barbarian ( used to be PDK Warlock 19 Fighter 1 til iconic reincarnate )
Great old one pact.

Maxed Con and chr to start then all level increases go to constitution. ( anything left goes to int )

Using Utterdark ( 8 AP tainted ) to concentrate on light/alignment bonuses and ignore force.
Souleater ( 31 AP ) for consume and stricken and +5% crit chance ( boss useful )
Enlightened( 38 AP ) for all the main enhancement focus
PDK( 3AP ) so I can get Charisma for to hit and damage.

Did well in haunted halls of eveningstar and got the purple dragon shield and radiant ring waiting in bank for level 26.
Goes the tank route with a tower shield, heavy armor, and intimidation.
Use junker buckler for casting spells and have learned to live with a low level of heavy armor arcane failure. ( very few spells are effected. Augment helps but does not eliminate )
Rock boots with striding augment handles all acid buffs.

Which means shield mastery, improved shield mastery, improved shield bash
But everything else goes into magic enhancing feats like quicken, empower, maximize, mental toughness ....

The vast majority of the damage is point blank area of effect.
but I can get a few swings in between burst and spirit blasts. ( Consume and Stricken cast very quickly )
Melee Alacrity or Blinding speed helps with that.
Shield bashes happen automatically and do carry the added light damage.

Strength: Very self-sufficient with considerable DPS. ( Though I suspect SWF top my melee damage by a good margin ) Hard to kill unless I fight stupid. ( particularly in Unyielding Sentinel destiny )
UMD allows casting of most divine utility/restoration spells.
Divine Crusader's interrogation level 1 twist aside from up front bonuses to spellpower and crit chance serves as a full non-damaging purification debuff as the aura, burst, and spirit blast are more than enough to build it up quickly.
temporary hp from healing cocoon, shining through, and brilliance all stack.
With Barbarian movement bonus, and the floating from celestrial spirit, this toon moves fast. The difference between +30% striding and just over +30% striding is very noticeable.
When facing a solitiary enemy, my attack sequence with aura, burst, spriit blast, stricken, consume, melee and shield attacks seem to keep the enemy constantly off balance and barely able to strike back.

Weakness: very susceptible to web spells ( which seem to last forever ) as unlike most tanks, Strength is a dump stat for this character.
likewise other paralyzers and dancers have me reaching for my jeweled cloak and harper pin.
I'm tanky but I'm not super tanky ( particularly with AC though displacement helps ) and I can get swarmed. With my area of effect attacks and aura of menace I sometimes get too much aggro even for me.
For reasons unclear to me ( particularly because Soul Eater provides +8 against disease and he is con maxed ) enemies love casting disease spells on this toon. It's almost like he has a sign on his back. "Plague Carrier"

[DrWily]

Okay, first off I must say thank you, to all of you, for all the build suggestions on the thread. :D
While checking back on here I also talked it out with my guildies, and seeing as I recently pulled a Dethek Runestone (http://ddowiki.com/page/Dethek_Runestone) from my most recent FTP run, I TR'd into a Shield build.

At the moment it's a Level 15 Shadar-kai almost lv16, with 1 Rogue, 1 Favored Soul, and 13 Warlock, going up to 18 Warlock for Celestial Spirit. Pact choice was the Great Old Ones.
Majority of my AP (34 atm, going up to 36) are in Souleater for E-Wave and Finger SLA, with Feed on Magic coming up next.
I have 21 AP in Enlightened Spirit with the big-hitters being E-Burst, Resist Energy SLA, and 2 Cha with Aura of Menace core.
Lastly I have 4 AP into Warpriest for Divine Might (although the boost will be more noticeable in Epics and I should probably reset the tree for now)
After that, any extra AP I have will go into Tainted Scholar for Feigned Health and more Pact damage.

At the moment it's very strong, with Taint the Blood and 2 FoDs (and Phantasmal Killer) I can take out the Champion and Orange mobs while I melee and Blast/Burst/Wave the trash. Only problem is that I lose SP too quickly, but I can just go back to the one or two shrines I skipped.

I'm also planning a Half Orc version with 1 Barbarian instead or Rogue, focusing on the Dragonmark of Treasure Finding and Lock Smash.

[Theolin]

See diabolist

[adrian69]

As I intend to play a melee-type of warlock for my next life, I'd like help on the experts of this game (unbongwah, I'm looking at you) to help me figure out the pros and cons of each type of fighting styles.

I intend to go 18 Lock for Spirit form, using mostly Melee, spamming Eldritch Wave and Eldritch Burst when they aren't on cooldown and then sometimes using the normal EB or the Aura (it's apparently causing a TON over here on Khyber). Getting the weapons/orbs/shields themselves aren't too much of a problem, with the exception of the raidloot coming up in U27.

Thanks in advance.

I played a lot of different variants of melee warlock the first month. So many, in fact, my wife took my money and computer away because I was spending to much and TRing to much over two weeks. Anyways, I can say this. You don't want less than 18 levels of warlock. I did not run Fey, so I cannot vouch for dropping a discoball and beating things up like a bard. Actually, you kill things to fast for that to even make since because melee warlock is all about AoE bursting and things don't live long afterward. I have not play since their minor nerf. Well -30% damage was a major nerf really.

Best: Pure 20 SWF or TWF (Did both, stats are tight TWF, and I ended up with roughly 66+ str and 48 charisma by 27, but was able to leverage more SWF and bump up more spell power with Libram) Warlock Fiend in Divine Crusader or Fate Singer with Sense Weakness, Reign (Would work better fey) or Grim Precision, and really whatever tier one twist. I used cocoon earlier on and twisted in more str later to even out how my new +6 tome and gear added up. What makes this better is the Enlightened Capstone. Choices are obvious what to take in the tree. Other wise, Fiend for Melee and Spell power, Consume and Striken are actually nice for the extra dmg. I put 8 points in to scholar for stun, core 1, and a 1d4, and core two.

Second best 18/1 fvs/1x Pretty much same as above, but your using 4 points AoV to boost Force and Fire spellpower and I put 3 points warpriest for Divine Might. I went a little more charisma heavy with this.

I can say if you can get charisma to early 40s you DCs will be fine for most content. You hitting things anyway on top of 2 second bursts. I did feel like going 12 lock 5 pally 3 bard swf s&b dwarf tank would be cool, but SWF with Silver Libram just was more optimal.

PA and Swap to precision
A fighting line
Maximize+Empower if using consume and striken
Extend swapped to quicken.

I've been playing with these builds waiting on people to see if they can convince turbine to nerf lock into nothingness before returning. It is really fun.

And, oh, the other good thing about going pure is you can swap out PrEs in certain raids/quests and still do massive dps from the back.

[DrWily]

See diabolist

How much defense would I get using med armor and a large shield instead of heavy and tower? (with Dumathoin's Bracers/Sightless when I get it)
As a preference thing I'd like to not risk spell failure and with a simple augment from the Twelve I can reduce the failure chance on my Runestone to 0.

[Zoda]

I'm planning to do a pure max CON dwarf wih a pair of heavy picks and Throw Your Weight Around in crusader (or maybe I'll try warhammers in blitz and twist crusader stuff, will have to try out a few stuff). Enlightened Spirit has some nice synergy with high CON and I can finally play dworf again. Int secondary for Strategic Combat 1 and KTA to get reasonable to hit and some extra dps.

An other alternative I really like (and might be better actually) is pure human with max int and int to damage from haroer tree. The advantage of using int is that your energy burst will have a reasonable DC and KTA gives better value.

I like TWF more than SWF or THF because it allows better gear setup imo (TOEE set). Retribution also scales better with TWF.

Or just go max cha and cast spells in angel/shiradi.

[Theolin]

How much defense would I get using med armor and a large shield instead of heavy and tower? (with Dumathoin's Bracers/Sightless when I get it)
As a preference thing I'd like to not risk spell failure and with a simple augment from the Twelve I can reduce the failure chance on my Runestone to 0.

~ 35ish I beleive

[unbongwah]

How much defense would I get using med armor and a large shield instead of heavy and tower?
http://ddowiki.com/page/PRR

Assuming BAB 28:

med armor: 20 + 4 + 2/3 * 28 = 42 PRR (rounded down)
hvy armor: 30 + 6 + 28 = 64 PRR


Most of the time the difference will be smaller, since your base BAB on a pure warlock is 19 at lvl 28 and I wouldn't expect you to burn thru Div Power or Tensers just for +6/9 PRR.

Large vs tower shield is 10 vs 15 PRR presuming no Shield Mastery feats; w/ISM+LSM, it's an extra +25 vs +30 PRR.

So med+lrg shield is ~25 PRR less than hvy+tower; with max LSM, it's ~35 PRR less.

http://ddowiki.com/page/Magical_Resistance_Rating

MRR is more straight-forward, no BAB bonuses or the like. med+hvy is 20 + 10 = 30 MRR; hvy+tower is 30 + 15 = 45 MRR.