Heighten

[HastyPudding]

I TR'd my warlock into a bard, and now he's back as a warlock and leveling in heroics. However, I'm having a hard time justifying taking heighten on my warlock. He's an enchantment spec, focusing on tainted scholar and some points in souleater and the drow racial tree. Not taking heighten means I can take an additional spell focus in enchantment. As far as I can tell, heighten doesn't affect anything significantly:

Mass Hold - This is pretty much the spell I'm working towards improving. However, this is already a level 6 spell, which is the highest spell level a warlock can get. I didn't pay attention the last time I was at cap, but I'm pretty sure heighten does nothing for warlock's mass hold, so the additional enchantment spell focus would give another +1 DC. A +1 DC to this spell trumps any of the other issues with losing heighten, in my opinion, as it's the only one that really matters to an enchanter.

Dancing Ball / Mind Fog - These are level 5, but a spell focus in enchantment would have the exact same effect as heighten and not cost an additional 5 SP.

Crushing Despair - This spell would lose 2 DC, but that's not a significant loss, all things considering. A straight up mass hold usually does the trick.

Web - This spell would suffer the most, but then it does not target a save, but a stat. I've had very little trouble landing web on things in the past, so I think heighten isn't going to make much difference.

Tentacles - Doesn't use heighten.

Wail / Finger of Death / Circle of Death / Undeath to Death - I'm not a necromancy focus, so beyond heroics I have no interest in these. Wail and circle are pretty much debuff tools in epics for an enchanter, not an instakill.

Steal Life Force - I rather like this ability, but I'm not sure why it has heighten as a metamagic option: it has no DC.

[FranOhmsford]

Heighten is a waste of a Feat for a Fey Lock {I don't know about Fiend or Old One} - Take Embolden in Epics though because Embolden works on Burst and Blast.

[HastyPudding]

Heighten is a waste of a Feat for a Fey Lock {I don't know about Fiend or Old One} - Take Embolden in Epics though because Embolden works on Burst and Blast.

Yes, I didn't think it was of much use to a Fey enchanter. I would definitely take it on a Fiend, though, because if I was to go Fiend I would be a necromancy caster, where heighten would be of much greater use. Honestly, I never played an Old One warlock, so I couldn't say.

[slarden]

A warlock that casts spells using a spell pen check needs these feats: maximize, empower, quicken, spell penetration, greater spell penetration and spell focus <School> which takes up 6 of 7 feats on a non-human/pdk.

Heighten is rarely the best choice for a warlock. Without spell pen it's something that can be fit in, but there are too many enemies with spell pen check at the moment.

At one point I fit it in as a 2 dc boost to tentacles, but with spell pen requirements it's off the table.

[FranOhmsford]

A warlock that casts spells using a spell pen check needs these feats: maximize, empower, quicken, spell penetration, greater spell penetration and spell focus <School> which takes up 6 of 7 feats on a non-human/pdk.

Heighten is rarely the best choice for a warlock. Without spell pen it's something that can be fit in, but there are too many enemies with spell pen check at the moment.

At one point I fit it in as a 2 dc boost to tentacles, but with spell pen requirements it's off the table.

How the Heck do you fit in Spell Pen?


1) Insightful Reflexes {Warlock's dump Dex!}, If Human also a Spell Focus
3) Wizard Past Life {or Completionist if available}
6) Maximise
9) Empower
12) A Spell Focus or If Human a 2nd Spell Focus or Greater Spell Focus.
15) Quicken {Not needed until you have Disco Ball}
18) Mental Toughness

I like Spell Focus Enchant, Spell Focus Evoc and Wizard Past Life personally.

[HastyPudding]

A warlock that casts spells using a spell pen check needs these feats: maximize, empower, quicken, spell penetration, greater spell penetration and spell focus <School> which takes up 6 of 7 feats on a non-human/pdk.

Heighten is rarely the best choice for a warlock. Without spell pen it's something that can be fit in, but there are too many enemies with spell pen check at the moment.

At one point I fit it in as a 2 dc boost to tentacles, but with spell pen requirements it's off the table.

Oh, I know how to build an enchanter warlock, I am just having difficulty justifying taking heighten over another spell focus.



How the Heck do you fit in Spell Pen?


1) Insightful Reflexes {Warlock's dump Dex!}, If Human also a Spell Focus
3) Wizard Past Life {or Completionist if available}
6) Maximise
9) Empower
12) A Spell Focus or If Human a 2nd Spell Focus or Greater Spell Focus.
15) Quicken {Not needed until you have Disco Ball}
18) Mental Toughness

I like Spell Focus Enchant, Spell Focus Evoc and Wizard Past Life personally.

You're thinking too much about damage. A DC caster of any kind must sacrifice to make their DC's viable; this usually is a sacrifice of damage and/or survivability. I never take empower on a DC warlock, since I never use eldritch burst/spirit blast, and maximize is good enough for consume, stricken, and tentacles. I find mental toughness to be a waste of a feat since I very very rarely run out of SP, and if I do I have several stacks of major mnemonic pots stored up (along with things like the bauble) and the +1% critical rate is a tiny drop in the bucket. If I remember right, my warlock last life at cap had about 2600 SP and never had any issues.

My current path as a drow is:
1 - Maximize
3 - Completionist
6 - Past Life: Wizard
9 - Spell Focus: Enchantment
12 - Quicken
15 - Spell Penetration
18 - Greater Spell Penetration
21 - Epic Eldritch Blast
24 - Embolden
26 - Arcane Eldritch Blast
27 - Greater Spell Focus: Enchantment
28 - Epic Spellpower: Light
29 - Deific Warding
30 - Epic Spell Penetration / Scion of the Feywild

The way I see it, spell penetration is more important than DC's, because you could have a 1,000 enchantment DC and it wouldn't matter if you couldn't land the spell in the first place. Epic Eldritch Blast could be swapped for another spell focus, but I'd like to at least have some damage output.

[slarden]

How the Heck do you fit in Spell Pen?


1) Insightful Reflexes {Warlock's dump Dex!}, If Human also a Spell Focus
3) Wizard Past Life {or Completionist if available}
6) Maximise
9) Empower
12) A Spell Focus or If Human a 2nd Spell Focus or Greater Spell Focus.
15) Quicken {Not needed until you have Disco Ball}
18) Mental Toughness

I like Spell Focus Enchant, Spell Focus Evoc and Wizard Past Life personally.

I run two warlocks a blaster and a necromancer. The blaster doesn't bother with spell pen. The necromancer needs the spell pen since it's the entire point of the build. Here are the necromancer specs (with feats in there somewhere)

https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthread.php/460700-Pure-Casting-Warlock-DC-Eld-Blast-Build?p=5869299&viewfull=1#post5869299