Are there any good leveling guides for a solo lock?

[Lucaria]

I've been hunting around trying to find a class to play, haven't really played this game since 2010, was told that warlock seems to be the best solo class right now. I see tons of information for super builds that you can't really get until later on after you've reincarnated dozens of times with level capped guides, but what about a first life solo warlock or leveling setups that don't just have a list of "this is what you should have at 28" powers?

Normally I would just experiment and play around with the game but after looking at some of these builds it's painfully obvious that going in to this game blind is going to result in nothing but pain and misery for your poor character as you slowly grind it into the dirt with bad choices.

Not to mention I have no idea if a pure lock is even going to BE the best character for soloing. I love locks in tabletop (despite their not so great performance with a table full of munchkins) so I figured I would attempt one here, assuming I'm not going to regret trying to solo with them.

I tossed in for VIP for the month so I do have access to locks, also apparently I picked up drow in 2010 so that's useful.

[talanh133]

Well. I've gotten to level 26 on my warlock. Admittedly I started at level 4, but none the less...

Pact: Largely a personal choice, though there are things to consider.

Fiend: Fire damage, which lots of things resist, especially at higher levels. But it also grants hurl through hell, which is a nice instakill for non-boss mobs. The spells it grants are, in my opinion, not as good as the other two pacts as well. But it does also grant a +2 bonus to saves.

GOO: Acid damage isn't as resisted as fire, though there are some things that do, still. It also grants a bit more defense, some fort and MRR. Useful stuff. Charm monster isn't so good, however. But the spells are a bit more useful. Power Word: Kill means you don't have to pick that spell on level up, when you get to that point, or spend AP on the SLA for it. Knock is nice, but won't be useful on many chests at higher levels. As usual, a rogue is a better choice for popping open chests.

Fey: Sonic has the fewest things resisting it, I believe. A no-save daze on non-bosses is also nice, as are the sphere of dancing and irresistible dance spells. Further, misty escape is a wings/abundant step-like ability, which is just lovely. That said, fey is sonic which means you need the skill points for perform, and it's a reflex save so evasion can reduce your damage, and improved evasion can outright negate it.

The two most important feats are empower and maximize. That said, they can possibly wait a bit as they won't be of much use in earlier levels. Not until you get something like eldritch wave, spirit blast, or similar. That said, if you go up the soul eater tree and get consume and stricken they can be useful in those early levels. Spell Focus: Evocation can help make the DCs for your pact damage a bit harder to resist. Force of Personality will help make your will saves even better, since charisma is going to be your main stat. While empower and maximize are pretty much required the rest of your feats depend on how you want to go about things. You can focus on casting, or you can grab things like shield mastery, or single weapon fighting, or the like and be a melee-lock. Which isn't a top-tier build, but for a first life, and getting up to cap, I can see it being amusing. Though if you go that route, pure warlock wouldn't be your best bet. Warlock 18/pally 2 would likely be decent.

On stats, Charisma is most important. It affects your spell points and save DCs. Con is, as always, good. More HP means you don't die as quick. Int gets you skill points which is somewhat important. Though how many you need depends on which pact you go with. Fey likes to have more, so you can put points into perform for the sonic spell power. For the other two pacts you only need spellcraft for spellpower. You also want enough to max UMD(between deceive item and having UMD as a class skill, you'll pretty much always be able to use at level wands/scrolls.) Jump you don't need more than 10 points in, if that. You can either get the jump spell yourself, or have it cast on you to take care of the 30 remaining to get max jump. Concentration is useful if you don't grab quicken spell.

For spells, there are no hard and fast rules as to what to get and all. Except Evard's Black Tentacles. As soon as you can, grab that one. It is a simply fantastic spell. A snare, damage, a slow. Beyond that... I tend to favor buffing spells. Jump, stoneskin, protection from elements, and so on. DC casting is possible, but difficult on a first life, as you won't have wizard PLs and such to help meet the DCs you need. So I favor buffing and blasting.

Now, enhancements. Here's where things get tricky. If you are going melee-lock, go Enlightened spirit. Sure, you need to get the AP for spirit blast and burst, and all, which takes time. But eldritch aura, the defenses, medium armor proficiency, and so on are required for a melee-lock.

But if you are going ranged blaster then the other two trees are what you want. First you should focus AP on tainted scholar. Get yourself up to utterdark blast and chain blast. It gives you AoE and changes your damage from force to evil(which uses light spellpower). There are a few things that resist force, but only a small number of things which resist evil damage. Then you go over to soul eater and grab consume and stricken. Single target chaotic damage(again, light spell-power), which can help you melt red-names. And with more points in that tree they can be modified to apply all sorts of debuffs. Then you go back to tainted scholar. Get the full line of strong pact(each rank of which gives another 1d4 pact damage.) You're going to work your way toward Blood Sacrifice in the core enhancements. 10% faster blast shapes is lovely, and the only way to increase your base blasting speed(eldritch aura from ES increases in how often it fires through the core enhancements there, so blood sacrifice is less useful.) By that point you should have an idea of which tree you like more, and how warlock plays, and so should be able to decide on your own which tree you want to advance further. Though I will say, Eldritch Wave in Soul Eater is pretty much going to be the best ability you've got for a nice bit of burst damage. It's a cone, and lacks the range of Eldritch Ball, but does more damage due to it firing three eldritch blasts with all associated effects, rather than one in an aoe burst like a fireball.


Hope all that helps.

[Lucaria]

It's certainly a great post, thank you. I'll be waiting around to see what other info I can get before I dive in but that gives me a lot to go on as a base, thanks. Not sure if going melee or ranged is better for first life, so far I've been reading a lot about both and people seem to have some strong opinions one way or the other. Which is good, I guess, that there is no 100% best way to go. Still, definitely want to find out more before I spend time and effort leveling this character too far. I've seen a lot of opinions that warlock is a fairly bad class (or will be soon with the nerfs) for soloing later on, especially epics.