Revisiting L29 Warlock Feat Choices

[Marshal_Lannes]

I'd like to revisit the feat options for pure Warlocks at L29. I have played around with them and don't find any of them clear cut choices. Now this is probably a good thing as it does give players more opportunity to customize their build instead of being pushed into the only clear choice, however I'd like to hear your thoughts on this rather vexing level. Let's look at the contenders:

1. Arcane Pulse - a popular choice and at first glance it seems cool, a stacking dot for only 9 SPs. I find that in practice I almost never use this spell though. It has zero use when fighting trash or orange named (assuming hurl through hell). So it is basically a spell that only enters the rotation when facing red named mini-bosses or bosses. Currently when facing bosses I will use a rotation of Ruin, Energy Burst, Hell ball, Avenging Light, Sun Bolt, Divine Wrath, blast, blast. By the time I am done with this sequence I am pretty much ready to repeat. Now yes, Hellball and Ruin are SP intensive when emp/max/intensified but frankly I don't use many SPs for the majority of the quest and this is usually the last encounter anyway. In practice I find I simply don't have a reason to fit Arcane Pulse into the equation, plus you have to account for force spell power again.

2. Deific Warding - a safe choice giving you 10 PRR and 10 MRR. The to hit +2 PRR/MRR mechanic can usually be relied to provide about an extra 8-10 PRR when you need it (after being hit a couple times). How good this feat is relates directly to your personal PRR/MRR so it could be anywhere from an extra 15% PRR/MRR to less than 5%. If it is upping your damage reduction 10-15% I tend to find this is a nice feat though you hardly ever see the tangible results.

3. Spell Power Light (20) - Since radiance is going to be your highest spell power it is of questionable value how much a further 20 spell power really gives you. I tend to think this is the most trivial of the three.

4. Dreamscape - the most intriguing of the group. Since I don't think any of the above feats are must haves for Warlock, it is one of the few classes that can play around with this feat. If you consider the L29 feat a luxury feat than anything you get from this is a bonus. Still, many of the effects are pretty useless and most often you are either gonna want 60 spell power, 15 PRR/MRR or 18 DR. If the feat was certain to give you one of these 3 I would say this is the clear choice, but when you end up with action boost sprint...well...not so much.

So what do you think? Which of these do you prefer or do you like something else that I have omitted?

[Morroiel]

Caster -> Arcane Pulse = mandatory

That's 2k+ dps on bosses, leaving 14 seconds free in rotation.

[Marshal_Lannes]

Caster -> Arcane Pulse = mandatory

That's 2k+ dps on bosses, leaving 14 seconds free in rotation.

I think in my description of Arcane Pulse its pretty clear that it is not mandatory, that's the point of this post. 2K DPS after stacking it up is rather blah if you ask me.

[KoobTheProud]

Arcane Pulse is the best. Low boss DPS in epics is the one real downside to being a Warlock unless you spec heavily for that and give up a lot of the Ironlock qualities in the process. Arcane Pulse is a simple solution to the problem, giving you another spell in the rotation and one that fits very well with what a Warlock does best, which is to just stack up damage and live through what comes back at them in the process.

Anything else that you take is defensible but it's not best.

[SeveredSteel]

Pretty much always Arcane Pulse. It facilitates raid boss and portal dps with minimal intrusion on rotations due to short cooldown and fully stacking in 10 seconds on a target. After which, like poster above pointed out, there is 14 seconds of freedom to use everything else. A lot of the spells you listed in the rotation, OP, are subject to saves and not really something desirable over other options of non-savable damage sources. There really shouldn't be any reason not to include Pulse in the first ten seconds of a huge hp meatsac. Force spell power is easily slotted on Earthen Mantle and should be slotted somewhere anyway, as to increase not just Pulse, but also Ruin and Greater Ruin effectiveness.

[Jeromio]

I'm building for using Dire Charge right now, during my latest reincarnation, for handling trash easier/faster in LE. It's a great feat for melee builds and others that can get the DC up high enough, so I thought it might be fun to try on a Warlock as well.

I believe I'll be able to reach a DC of around 105-110, and hope this will be a bit useful in LE.

Normally, I'll go with one of options 1, 2 or 3 depending on the build.

[Tilomere]

I'm building for using Dire Charge right now,

If you are staying at cap, Dire Charge, on a PDK pure 20 warlock with KTA + CKT. Not even a shadow of a doubt in my mind.

If you are doing ETR/ITRs, it doesn't matter.

[slarden]

I was the first person the boards to suggest casters consider dire charge, but the reality is that the boss dps of arcane pulse is too good to pass up for most casting builds. For a melee warlock dire charge is a no-brainer. for a melee/caster hybrid combo dire charge is still probably the right choice since melee will be the source of boss dps.

For a caster warlock arcane pulse is usually the right answer for fast boss dps which is important in raids like shroud, defiler of the just and even mark of death. Even in tempest spine where timing isn't as critical I still want arcane pulse for boss fights. Dire charge does nothing at all for boss fights and a person should never rely on others to bring the boss dps unless they have a specific role. Warlocks for the most part - dps is their primary role and what they are valued for. Even if spec'd with 40+ points spent in Soul Eater I still want the extra dot.

If someone is in a static group where the stuns are needed there is definitely a case for dire charge as part of a specific role. Otherwise the damage boost from the stuns isn't really needed for the trash and dire charge does nothing for boss fights. Don't be the guy that doesn't contribute to boss fights.

One thing to note with arcane pulse is that the metamagic use is based on the most recent cast. So you can charge it up without metamagic quickly and then on the 5th cast and all subsequent recasts use the version on your hotbar with metamagic.

[slarden]

I'm building for using Dire Charge right now, during my latest reincarnation, for handling trash easier/faster in LE. It's a great feat for melee builds and others that can get the DC up high enough, so I thought it might be fun to try on a Warlock as well.

I believe I'll be able to reach a DC of around 105-110, and hope this will be a bit useful in LE.

Normally, I'll go with one of options 1, 2 or 3 depending on the build.

According to others posts I've seen you will need 130s for LE shroud. 105-110 should be good enough against most other enemies outside LE shroud. My assassin has 118 and that works on almost everything outside LE shroud.

[Tilomere]

According to others posts I've seen you will need 130s for LE shroud.

Where?

[slarden]

Where?

https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthread.php/475973-Combat-tactics-Some-questions?p=5834765&viewfull=1#post5834765

133 no fail 123 not no fail

[Jeromio]

According to others posts I've seen you will need 130s for LE shroud. 105-110 should be good enough against most other enemies outside LE shroud. My assassin has 118 and that works on almost everything outside LE shroud.

Thanks, that's very useful info!

[Tilomere]

Thanks, that's very useful info!

Possibly also wrong info though. The text is wrong on legendary rope, but since it is insightful on the rope and all items have automatic item scaling to avoid bugs like this,, it isn't +14 like they think, so their DCs may be off from what they think they are. Insightful autoscaling doesn't go to +14.

[Vanhooger]

Possibly also wrong info though. The text is wrong on legendary rope, but since it is insightful on the rope and all items have automatic item scaling to avoid bugs like this,, it isn't +14 like they think, so their DCs may be off from what they think they are. Insightful autoscaling doesn't go to +14.

Unless it's broken, the tooltip says 133.


Insightful autoscaling doesn't go to +14.

How can you be so sure? Only a DEV can tell after proper testing.

There are bug that not even dev's are aware of, but it's normal in all the coding scene, especially on large project.

[slarden]

Possibly also wrong info though. The text is wrong on legendary rope, but since it is insightful on the rope and all items have automatic item scaling to avoid bugs like this,, it isn't +14 like they think, so their DCs may be off from what they think they are. Insightful autoscaling doesn't go to +14.
It doesn't stack with other iinsightful bonuses but there is no other limit I saw.

[Marshal_Lannes]

I was the first person the boards to suggest casters consider dire charge, but the reality is that the boss dps of arcane pulse is too good to pass up for most casting builds. For a melee warlock dire charge is a no-brainer. for a melee/caster hybrid combo dire charge is still probably the right choice since melee will be the source of boss dps.

For a caster warlock dire charge is usually the right answer for fast boss dps which is important in raids like shroud, defiler of the just and even mark of death. Even in tempest spine where timing isn't as critical I still want arcane pulse for boss fights. Dire charge does nothing at all for boss fights and a person should never rely on others to bring the boss dps unless they have a specific role. Warlocks for the most part - dps is their primary role and what they are valued for. Even if spec'd with 40+ points spent in Soul Eater I still want the extra dot.

If someone is in a static group where the stuns are needed there is definitely a case for dire charge as part of a specific role. Otherwise the damage boost from the stuns isn't really needed for the trash and dire charge does nothing for boss fights. Don't be the guy that doesn't contribute to boss fights.

One thing to note with arcane pulse is that the metamagic use is based on the most recent cast. So you can charge it up without metamagic quickly and then on the 5th cast and all subsequent recasts use the version on your hotbar with metamagic.

Interesting points and I never considered Dire Charge before. On the part of your post that I bolded this is a great tip, I did not know this.

Severedsteel - that's a good point on synergy with ruin/greater ruin.

Based on these discussions I think my top three choices depending on build would now be Dire Charge, Arcane Pulse and Deific Warding

[Enoach]

All the choices in the OP are choices, but I don't think they are the only choices.

I've used Ruin and Hellball both do some amazing damage. But both just seem to not be the SP to Damage Ratio that made me comfortable.

I understand the power of Arcane Pulse, but not having it does not prevent you from soloing content, or even being a large contributor to that completion.

---
I have actually enjoyed trying out the Scion of Air/Earth/Fire to match up with Pact on the Warlock. It is limited but I tend to enjoy the focus aspect.

I tried the Dream and found I tended to forget to use it.

The feats are good, but I still don't see any feat as a must have. I don't want any feat to every be a must have even for a build. When Toughness was basically required for ALL builds it hurt DDO. I don't ever want that to happen again.

[Marshal_Lannes]

The feats are good, but I still don't see any feat as a must have. I don't want any feat to every be a must have even for a build. When Toughness was basically required for ALL builds it hurt DDO. I don't ever want that to happen again.

I think one of the more interesting aspects of Warlock is that it is one of the few classes/builds in the game that is largely not reliant on feats. There are very few (if any) feats that are 'required'. If you want to spend 3 feats on shield mastery go for it. If you want to bump up spell pen, SPs or evocation focus you can do that too. One of the main reasons I started this thread was that in build after build you see posted the L29 Feat listed is Arcane Pulse. However after trying that out, along with others, I found it curious that it was such an overwhelming favorite when I really didn't use it that much.

[Tilomere]

One of the main reasons I started this thread was that in build after build you see posted the L29 Feat listed is Arcane Pulse.

These aren't the right boards for the more complex stay at 30 builds. These are the starter boards, for the starter mostly pure 20 builds, and common area builds, for those on the TR train. A build where you stay at 30 to do EE raids with a LR+1 of a pdk that layers tactics and to-hit and DR bypass on top of spells isn't for most players.




How can you be so sure? Only a DEV can tell after proper testing.




The whole point of automatic item scaling is that an item gets its properties off its intrinsic level and a formula dependent on each property scaling. +14 listed is twice the normal insightful value range, Since other properties on the item are not twice the value range, the item intrinsic level is proper.


Therefore, the item is of normal intrinsic level, intrinsic value, and not +14 insightful, and the tooltip is wrong. 95% sure. That's the whole point of automatic item scaling. Even if you assign the wrong properties to the item, they don't scale out of proportion and power. The tooltip must be pulling text off base intrinsic item scaling for competence. That's another point of automatic item scaling. You don't have to hand-craft each tool tip.

Double check the tooltip on dire charge against your total bonus, and you should find what rope is contributing.

[maddong]

I've always assumed rope was like combat mastery boots +14 and just bugged to be insightful but not bothering to be fixed.