Warlock Enhancements: Enlightened Spirit

[ThomasHunter]

I was reading this after dinner on my phone and was giggling out loud! This seems so amazing and fun!!!

I can see myself finally TR-ing my (first life) FvS into a Warlock using ALL of this tree. Egads!!!

[Silverleafeon]

Hey, everyone. Here's our current design for Enlightened Spirit, one of the three Enhancement Trees for Warlocks in U26. Unlike other Warlocks, Enlightened Spirits turn toward the paths of light, which is reflected in their damage and the types of abilities they get. They're better at close-range AOE than other Warlocks, and have a lot of abilities to support themselves, their allies, and their summons.

First read thru, here we go.

Their Eldritch Blast shape works differently from other trees - Their first Core ability is a toggle which takes Eldritch Blast off of your Auto-Attack... and instead puts the damage out every few seconds as an Aura. While this is active, you can't fire Eldritch Blasts normally, but you can wield weapons or fire spells while the Aura deals damage passively. There are also two large AOE Eldritch Blast abilities in the tree that can be used whether or not you have the Aura active. We expect this tree to be popular with some cross-class builds, but should stand on its own as a Warlock as well.

Sounds like an excellent theme. I love the hands free AOE for melee combinations.



Thank you for the picture. It helps visualize better.



Core Abilities

• 1 AP, class level 1: Eldritch Aura: Stance: While this is active, your Eldritch Blast changes into an aura. It deals the same damage as your Eldritch Blast to all foes in range every 8 seconds. You cannot fire Eldritch Blasts while in this stance, but may attack normally with weapons and cast spells.

Very nice, love it.
No universal spell power addition, but the ability to hit multiple foes gathered about you is very strong.
However, every 8 seconds seems a little low.

• 5 AP, class level 3: Aura of Courage:You gain immunity to Fear, and all allies around you gain a +4 morale bonus to saving throws against fear. Passive: +5 Healing Amp

I slot immunity to fear on my end game items.
Healing amp is nice for melee.

• 10 AP, class level 6: Shape Vestments: While wearing Light Armor, you gain +10 Maximum HP and +5 MRR. While wearing Medium Armor you are proficient with, you gain +20 Maximum HP and +10 MRR. Passive: Your Eldritch Aura now affects enemies every 4 seconds.

Every 4 seconds, it much better.
Medium armor usage is rare, and its good to see it utilized here.
I am assuming we gain proficiency in medium armor somewhere in this tree?

• 20 AP, class level 12: Aura of Menace: Toggle: You project a 15 meter Aura of Menace, decreasing the saving throws, attack, and armor class of nearby enemies by 2. Passive: Your Eldritch Aura now affects enemies every 3 seconds. Passive: You gain proficiency with all Martial weapons.

Well, here is 2 of the 3 necessary DC modifications to keep a Warlock on the same level as a normal caster.
I will be looking to see if there is a third. Also, Scholar can probably pick this up, but might be unlikely to do so.

Nice to see Martial weapon proficiency, this brings a real melee edge to the tree.
Just in time for Greensteel Weapons and right at the point where all classes gain a power boost.

• 30 AP, class level 18: Spirit Armor: When your Eldritch Aura is active, each time you are hit by an attack, you gain a stack of Spirit Armor. (Spirit Armor: +1 stacking PRR and MRR. Stacks up to 20 times.) Passive: Your Eldritch Aura now affects enemies every 2 seconds.

More PRR and MRR is good. This should put Warlocks similar to heavy armor.
I assume these stacks should not decay quickly. Suggestion they remain for 30~60 seconds before dwindling.
Warlocks will need every bit of this.

• 41 AP, class level 20: Celestial Spirit: +2 CON, +2 CHA.Toggle: When enabled, you float above the ground, gain Feather Falling, and are immune to knockdown effects. When enabled, your Eldritch Blasts gain 3d6 Light damage, and you gain 10 Melee Power, Ranged Power, and Universal Spell Power.

I assume no cooldown.
Frankly this look classy, like a capstone should look like.
Perfect.


Tier One

1. Resilience of Body: +2/4/6 PRR
2. Spiritual Defense: While your Eldritch Aura is active, you and nearby allies get a +1/2/3 bonus to AC. You personally receive 5/10/15 Maximum Hitpoints.
3. Resilience of Soul: +2/4/6 MRR
4. Brutality: Multiselector: Brute Fighting (attacks)/Brutal Spellcasting (spells) Toggle: Your damaging (attacks/spells) generate [25/50/75]% more hate than they normally would, making enemies more likely to attack you.
5. Rewards of Tribute: +1/2/3 Heal, Balance, and Intimidate. Rank 3: +1 Fortitude Save

More PRR, I like thus.
More bonuses tied to aura, I like as well.
More MMR, I like as well.
Toggle for hate generation, very nice.
Typical tier 1 skill bonus, which is fine.


Tier Two

1. Resist Energies: Gives an ally an Enhancement bonus against Fire, Cold, Electric, Acid, and Sonic damage, reducing that type of damage taken by 10. The bonus increases to 20 at caster level 7 and 30 at caster level 11. (SP Cost: 75/70/60)
2. Spiritual Bastion: While your Eldritch Aura is active, you get +3/6/10 PRR, and nearby allies get +1/2/3 PRR.
3. Power of Enlightenment: Multiselector: Light or Positive: You gain 5/10/15 (Light or Positive) Spell Power and 2/4/6 Universal Spell Power.
4. Shield: You permanently gain the effects of the Shield spell.
5. Action Boost: Defense: Activate to gain a +[5/10/15] Action Boost bonus to Armor Class and Physical Resistance Rating for 20 seconds. (Cooldown: 30 seconds.)

Resist Energies multiple protection is nice.
However, often one can predict which element is most likely to be encountered.
And at end game, items replace this effect.
So its mostly a heroic spell.
During Heroics a Warlock will have very limited spell points and unless you increase the duration it will need casting multiple times.
The idea is great, I love, however the spell point cost is way too high.
Warlocks already have resist energy which makes this not a unique ability, unlike Unyielding Sentienals SLA.
Please reduce to 5 more than normal resist energy = 15+5 (realizing that is still a 33% increase in cost).

More Aura Bonuses which I like. Nice to have PPR.

Spell power boost is nice since there is no universal bonus per points spent in tree.

I hope Shield blocks magic missiles because that is the main reason anyone casts Shield/Nightshield.

Action boost is very typical of melee trees.



Tier Three

1. Eldritch Burst: Fire your Eldritch Blast in an AOE centered on you. All enemies caught in the burst take 2d6 Light Damage that scales with Spell Power, plus any other effects and damage your Eldritch Blasts produce. This ability shares a cooldown with Cleave.
2. Spiritual Ward: While your Eldritch Aura is active, you get +3/6/10 MRR, and nearby allies get +1/2/3 MRR.
3. Power of Enlightenment: Multiselector: Light or Positive: You gain 5/10/15 (Light or Positive) Spell Power and 2/4/6 Universal Spell Power.
4. Fortify Summons: Your summoned creatures, hirelings, and pets get +25/50/100% fortification, 5/10/15 PRR, and 5/10/15 MRR.
5. CON/CHA

Nice burst effect, I like it. Can we have Quicken, Maximize, and Empower affect it? I assume it is zero spell point cost?
Nicely done, it sharing cooldown with cleave.
More spell power, thank you.

Nice Fortify Summons, please copy and paste thus to the Artificer and Druid trees.
If anything its too light. Doubling it would not be overpowerfull.
Summons and pets are an endangered species.
{Did we ever make summons, hires, and pets immune to Champion bonuses?}

Since this is a melee tree, would rather see Str / Cha but I'll settle for Con / Cha without much fuss.

Tier Four

1. Medium Armor Proficiency: Passive: You gain proficiency in Medium Armor, and the ability to cast arcane spells in medium armor without arcane spell failure.
2. Retribution: Your Eldritch Blasts, Melee Attacks, and Ranged Attacks gain 1d6/2d6/3d6 Light damage that scales with Spell Power.
3. Cure Moderate Wounds SLA: Heals 2d6+4 hp plus 1 point per caster level (max 10), as per the Cure Moderate Wounds spell. (Cooldown: 3 Seconds. SP Cost: 8/6/5)
4. Imbue Summons: Your summoned creatures/hirelings/pets gain 10/20/30 Melee, Ranged, and Universal Spell Power
5. CON/CHA

There we go, tier 4 (level 4) Medium Armor.
Fast enough for me, most players are still in the Harbor at level 4, zerging away making kobolds flee in terror.

Nice little Eldritch Blast damage bonus.
High up, need serious attempt to gain it.
I do hope this triggers Empyrean Magic, Endless Ardor, Scourge, etc..I would be very sad if it did not.

Wow, nicely done, CMW as an SLA that can be metamagics for free.
I have used CSW on a ranger to advantage, so this should work very well for good but not overpowered self healing.

More Summons Buffs, wow!
Love the power boost which they need.
Please copy and paste to the upcoming Druid and Artificer trees.

An end game Warlock can always twist in Elder Dryad which used to be fairly good until the introduction of champions.

Tier Five

1. Spirit Blast: Fire your Eldritch Blast in an AOE centered on you. All enemies caught in the burst take 10d6 Light Damage that scales with spell power, plus any other effects and damage your Eldritch Blasts produce. This ability shares a cooldown with Great Cleave.
2. Beacon: While your Eldritch Aura is active, all allies within your Aura gain +10 Healing Amp. You personally receive an additional +10 Healing Amp.
3. Break Forth: Calling upon your patron, you convert the space around you into positive energy, healing 1d8 plus 1 per Warlock level to all nearby allies, remove 1d4 negative levels and 1d6 points of ability damage. Undead take 1d8 Positive damage per Warlock level (Will save for half). (Metamagic: Empower, Empower Heal, Maximize, Quicken. Spell Resistance: Yes)
4. Displace Summons: Your summoned creatures/hirelings/pets gain a permanent 25% Concealment, as per the item effect "Lesser Displacement", and 10% Dodge.
5. Displacement SLA: The caster's appearance becomes extremely blurred, giving enemies a 50% miss chance when attacking. (Cooldown: 3 seconds. Activation Cost: 6 SP)

Spirit Blast looks like a very nice tier 5.
Hope you can use maximize and empower on it, ty.

Beacon for more Healing Amp, yes since we have the CMW SLA.

Love the Break Forth.
And I love the Light/Healing themes in here, definitely melee happy and makes this different from a Sorcerer in game play.

Wow, more Summons Buffs, nicely done.
Again, copy and paste to Druid/Artificier 3rd trees.
However I would increase this first set to
Fortify Summons: Your summoned creatures, hirelings, and pets get +50/75/125% fortification, 10/15/20 PRR, and 10/15/20 MRR.
Imbue Summons and Displace Summons look great.

Ty for the displacement SLA, nice tier 5 touch, cheaper sp cost and frees up spell slots.

As usual, this is all subject to feedback and change. Let us know what you think!


Well done, I am very proud of you.
Keep up the good work.

PS I am enjoying starting to learn ToEE questing, nicely done.

[Angelic-council]

Wow.. Ok. "this" is an amazing tree. I don't have to add anything really, good job. Now, only testing is what left.

[Silverleafeon]

Confused enemies are likely not going to be considered charmed for the purposes of bonuses, Augment Summons, etc. We do expect some players to essentially use Confusion in the same places they would use charms, but in a way that requires less fiddly bits (such as using Dismiss Charm so the party can kill it later.)

Confusion sounds great.
I assume my mass heals will not heal a confused critter?

[HastyPudding]

I'm assuming the floating animation is similar to the pale master's wraith form, although I think it would be so much more awesome if it was more like the priestesses of lolth in the eveningstar quests.

All-in-all, I really have nothing to comment on other than I hope the scaling of the eldritch aura is balanced, as in not too strong, else we'll have an entire (crimson) legion of clones on our hands.

[Sebastrd]

Maybe you could get around the martial proficiency at level 12 issue by adding masters touch as a spell choice.

This is a really good idea. Tainted Scholar already sets precedent for trees adding specific SLAs, and Master's Touch is a perfect choice here. In fact, I'd love to see a similar line of SLAs in the core enhancements. How about:

Core 1: Expeditious Retreat

Core 2: Divine Favor

Core 3: Master's Touch

Core 4: Blur

Core 5: Stoneskin

Core 6: Tenser's Transformation

That would also spice up some the more lackluster cores - the Auras in particular are less than stellar.

[slarden]

I would think 18 warlock 2 fvs in Exalted Angel would work really well with this tree. I can't see giving up the level 18 core for more fvs levels though which is too bad because of shield of condemnation would be quite nice with the aura.

I can't tell if a pure caster would be better than a caster/melee hybrid, but I see alot of interesting possibilities with this tree.

[dlsidhe]

...that Soul Eater isn't ready for us to look over yet. Because I really want to be a Soul Eater because reasons.

That said, I now want to see Soul Eater so I know how it'll interface with this, because 1) an Enlightened Soul Eater amuses me endlessly and 2) this is really awesome and 3) my most likely toon to have a warlock life has three monk lives, two as a bard, and has a bunch of Swashy melee gear.

Tree comments:

1) I don't think level 12 is too late for Melee, actually, given that the most likely races for this are human (grab a melee or exotic weapon feat at level 1, swap it with Fred at 12) or drow (bonus to charisma, innate shortsword/rapier/shuriken proficiency). Other than that, stick Master's Touch in at level 3 as a bonus spell until full proficiency is granted, or to make it a little more funky let the Enlightened Soul pick any kensei-style weapon-group for proficiency with the level 1 core and remove proficiency at 12, and then grant bonuses to the selected weapons with every core enhancement (say, +1 enhancement bonus per core, then add +1 crit multiplier at 18 or 20). This would add some variety - Enlightened Spirits focused on buffing their aura/blasts might pick a group that gives them bonuses to q-staffs or scepters for more casting options, drow 'Locks might pick light blades and buff their shortswords and rapiers, you'd get crazy FvS/Paladin/Warlock Bladeforged and Warforged doing unnatural things with a Warpriest/KotC/Enlightened Soul, etc.

2) The aura sounds awesome, and that's why I'm now more hyped for Soul Eater. If Soul Eater does nasty things to eldritch blasts with essences, then having something like a chance at level drain every 4 seconds is double-plus awesome.

3) I personally dislike temporary bonuses that depend on getting hit, because getting hit isn't good. I'd rather Spirit Armor be a stacking, permanent bonus to MRR and PRR; primarily, for flavor reasons, to MRR. Add it into the Aura - companions get +5PRR/+10MRR, and you get an additional +5PRR/+10MRR. You're in a pact with a magical being, you should have a tremendous amount of magical resistance.

[LordTigerDawn]

Hello all,

This is for both trees: enlighted and tainted... I am not sure how they are supposed to interact with each other, but here is a few things I noticed:

Enlighted,

turns ability into an aura - That is awesome, and probably the only blast shape I care about.

1 ap - but most likely 6 warlock and 11 ap for the 4 second timer

Tainted tier 2 - makes this aura negative energy -
will this aura heal you if you are in undead form????
if yes, this is better than death aura already
if no, why not? That is exactly how it should work.
Negative should be higher in the tree.

Enlightened - tier 4 - Retribution
3d6 light dmg added to melee scaled by spell power -
For paladin, that is arguably overpowered right now this takes lvl 12,
proposed is a buffed up version only needing lvl 4.

[redoubt]

Confused enemies are likely not going to be considered charmed for the purposes of bonuses, Augment Summons, etc. We do expect some players to essentially use Confusion in the same places they would use charms, but in a way that requires less fiddly bits (such as using Dismiss Charm so the party can kill it later.)

So... will it work in epic content?

Charms are non-functional in epic content due to the highly accelerated saves against them.

[edrein]

• 10 AP, class level 6: Shape Vestments: While wearing Light Armor, you gain +10 Maximum HP and +5 MRR. While wearing Medium Armor you are proficient with, you gain +20 Maximum HP and +10 MRR. Passive: Your Eldritch Aura now affects enemies every 4 seconds.

This isn't actually a bad core in itself. I'd definitely recommend you tie the Maximum HP bonus to the Enhancement bonus of the armor. Based on current epic armor at cap this would give Warlocks an additional 100/200HP respectively, and actually scale this core into Epic Levels.

• 30 AP, class level 18: Spirit Armor: When your Eldritch Aura is active, each time you are hit by an attack, you gain a stack of Spirit Armor. (Spirit Armor: +1 stacking PRR and MRR. Stacks up to 20 times.) Passive: Your Eldritch Aura now affects enemies every 2 seconds.

On it's own this one is a tad weak bespires the aura passive. I'd recommend you instead turn this is into a flat passive bonus of 20 PRR/MRR. For a level 18 core that's reasonable, again in Epics this won't scale if it's based on when YOU get hit. Now if you rework it based on us attacking enemies it could work out.

• 41 AP, class level 20: Celestial Spirit: +2 CON, +2 CHA.Toggle: When enabled, you float above the ground, gain Feather Falling, and are immune to knockdown effects. When enabled, your Eldritch Blasts gain 3d6 Light damage, and you gain 10 Melee Power, Ranged Power, and Universal Spell Power.

As far as capstone's go this is slightly weak. Atleast for the 'melee-capable' tree as you've stated. I'd recommend you throw a damage proc here, beyond just the Eldritch Blast light damage. Or perhaps a BLIND effect on your Eldritch Blast. Something to again help scale into epics and gives another form of damage mitigation that fits the overall theme of this Quasi-Celestial enhancement tree.

[/FONT]
Tier One

1. Resilience of Body: +2/4/6 PRR
2. Spiritual Defense: While your Eldritch Aura is active, you and nearby allies get a +1/2/3 bonus to AC. You personally receive 5/10/15 Maximum Hitpoints.
3. Resilience of Soul: +2/4/6 MRR
4. Brutality: Multiselector: Brute Fighting (attacks)/Brutal Spellcasting (spells) Toggle: Your damaging (attacks/spells) generate [25/50/75]% more hate than they normally would, making enemies more likely to attack you.
5. Rewards of Tribute: +1/2/3 Heal, Balance, and Intimidate. Rank 3: +1 Fortitude Save

Overall for Tier 1 these are fine. Perhaps make the HP bonus from Spiritual Defense scale percentage wise at say 2%/3%/5% respectively to help it scale into epic levels.

Tier Two

1. Resist Energies: Gives an ally an Enhancement bonus against Fire, Cold, Electric, Acid, and Sonic damage, reducing that type of damage taken by 10. The bonus increases to 20 at caster level 7 and 30 at caster level 11. (SP Cost: 75/70/60)
2. Spiritual Bastion: While your Eldritch Aura is active, you get +3/6/10 PRR, and nearby allies get +1/2/3 PRR.
3. Power of Enlightenment: Multiselector: Light or Positive: You gain 5/10/15 (Light or Positive) Spell Power and 2/4/6 Universal Spell Power.
4. Shield: You permanently gain the effects of the Shield spell.
5. Action Boost: Defense: Activate to gain a +[5/10/15] Action Boost bonus to Armor Class and Physical Resistance Rating for 20 seconds. (Cooldown: 30 seconds.)

Resist Energies needs to scale every 4 levels by your plan. Giving us 40 at 15, 50 at 19, and have it stop around 60 at 23. This gives the class an unique effect others don't have as far as elemental resistance goes.
Could you possibly make Power of Enlightment have a third multiselector for say a 1d4 light damage effect?
Shield is always nice.
Action Boost: Defense, interesting choice here, I'd personally vote for haste boost myself or damage boost.

Tier Three

1. Eldritch Burst: Fire your Eldritch Blast in an AOE centered on you. All enemies caught in the burst take 2d6 Light Damage that scales with Spell Power, plus any other effects and damage your Eldritch Blasts produce. This ability shares a cooldown with Cleave.
2. Spiritual Ward: While your Eldritch Aura is active, you get +3/6/10 MRR, and nearby allies get +1/2/3 MRR.
3. Power of Enlightenment: Multiselector: Light or Positive: You gain 5/10/15 (Light or Positive) Spell Power and 2/4/6 Universal Spell Power.
4. Fortify Summons: Your summoned creatures, hirelings, and pets get +25/50/100% fortification, 5/10/15 PRR, and 5/10/15 MRR.
5. CON/CHA

I like the Eldritch Burst idea, will it work like cleave or something more conal like the Shout/Horn of Thunder SLA in Spellsinger? (For those who haven't messed with this, the cone hits a near 360 degree area around and behind your character, but widens infront of your character within a short range.)
Again a possible third multiselector for 1d4 light damage from Power of Enlightenment.
Fortify Summons this is interesting, could see some good synergy in epics with the Magister or Primal Avatar summons. However, could get perhaps a wisp or archon summon for this tree as a T5 to emphasize this summons deal.

Tier Four

1. Medium Armor Proficiency: Passive: You gain proficiency in Medium Armor, and the ability to cast arcane spells in medium armor without arcane spell failure.
2. Retribution: Your Eldritch Blasts, Melee Attacks, and Ranged Attacks gain 1d6/2d6/3d6 Light damage that scales with Spell Power.
3. Cure Moderate Wounds SLA: Heals 2d6+4 hp plus 1 point per caster level (max 10), as per the Cure Moderate Wounds spell. (Cooldown: 3 Seconds. SP Cost: 8/6/5)
4. Imbue Summons: Your summoned creatures/hirelings/pets gain 10/20/30 Melee, Ranged, and Universal Spell Power
5. CON/CHA

Medium Armor Proficiency is exactly where I wanted it.
Retribution is nice and would synchronize well with the option for a 1d4 light damage from Power of Enlightenment.
Cure Moderate is nice, though I think it would be a bit more fitting to perhaps make this Vigor to fit the Fiendish Resilience Ability in tabletop.
Again more summons stuff is nice, a T5 summon pet please!

Tier Five

1. Spirit Blast: Fire your Eldritch Blast in an AOE centered on you. All enemies caught in the burst take 10d6 Light Damage that scales with spell power, plus any other effects and damage your Eldritch Blasts produce. This ability shares a cooldown with Great Cleave.
2. Beacon: While your Eldritch Aura is active, all allies within your Aura gain +10 Healing Amp. You personally receive an additional +10 Healing Amp.
3. Break Forth: Calling upon your patron, you convert the space around you into positive energy, healing 1d8 plus 1 per Warlock level to all nearby allies, remove 1d4 negative levels and 1d6 points of ability damage. Undead take 1d8 Positive damage per Warlock level (Will save for half). (Metamagic: Empower, Empower Heal, Maximize, Quicken. Spell Resistance: Yes)
4. Displace Summons: Your summoned creatures/hirelings/pets gain a permanent 25% Concealment, as per the item effect "Lesser Displacement", and 10% Dodge.
5. Displacement SLA: The caster's appearance becomes extremely blurred, giving enemies a 50% miss chance when attacking. (Cooldown: 3 seconds. Activation Cost: 6 SP)

Spirit Blast sounds good. Perhaps incorperate Beacon into the level 18 core.
Break Forth eh, I'm not for this. I'd rather have a passive fast healing effect similar to Fiendish Resistance something more akin to... 1d8 plus 1 per warlock level every 20 seconds. With an active 'burst' heal portion, able to remove the 1d4 negs and 1d6 ability damage. That's just me personally.
Displace Summons is nice.
How about creating a T5 for summoning a Wisp or Archon to aid us in battle. Either a real deal pet or a simple PM Skeleton like summons. However, please base it on CHARACTER LEVEL that way Epic Levels can perhaps be included to the summon's scaling, rather than just the warlock levels and hurting those who may actually multiclass.

As usual, this is all subject to feedback and change. Let us know what you think!

My overall ideas after sitting down and actually reading and re-reading your initial proposal isn't that bad. If you consider my feedback a pure will be more viable in EE as far as performing as a melee fighter or hybrid without having to outright splash things such as Fighter, Paladin, or Monk.

[janave]

This looks like an alright tree,
but here comes the but
too much reuse of other classes/pre-s signatures.

The Paladin and FvS auras should not be reused here imo.
The Radiant aura is also quite a bit shaky.

Warlock already draws too much from other classes.
Currently Warlock design says "you mean there are 5 other party slots?"

[rehakp]

Nice interesting tree ... but summons talents .. really ?
Sumons and pets are useless in EE and not even all druid past lifes, feats, twists and pet speccing change that until they get atleast bit of brain coded.
In EE druids and artificers dont even summon pets because they kinda play for the other team there ... not able to survive, not able to carry simple orders, not able to DPS, but are perfectly able to bring redalert when ordered to stay still in corner. Hires are pretty mutch the same and summons are completely random crazy you use only if you feel the difficulty not enough and you want more challenge or you are able to just zergblitz thru whole dungeon ignoring any allerts.

Unlit that changes any effort made into summons/pets/hireligs upgrades is pretty mutch wasted time (or maybe rally small bonus for some EN runners ?)
Dont get me wrong here .. ale the pet talents in DDO looks nice "on paper" and would be really amazing IF pets were usable in first place.
But current reality in any serious content is that any pet here basically lives for 5-10 seconds and if you lucku just peacefully die after that period of time .. if you unlucky he manage to set redalert in that short lifespan. Any upgrade currenly available thru trees, feats etc. just changes this lifespan to maybe 5-20 sec only giving more him more time to set the redalert.
I know this is not warlock specific but those somehow useless pet buffs are.
My suggestion is stop wasting development time to add more and more pet bonusses into game (thers alot already) but do something with pets brains and mechanics instead.
Even really simple solution like "following orders" would be great improvement for the start.

[Slasheboy]

Thanks for all the hard work devs.

Here are some quick reactions.

Eldritch Aura: The scaling throughout the heroic levels worries me with this ability.
The DPS of Eldritch Aura is calculated this way: Eldritch Blast Damage X Spellpower bonus X Spell Critical Modifier X DC Modifier X Number of Eldritch Aura Activations per Second
The first four components grow linearly, which combined already lead to an exponential growth of Eldritch Aura's DPS. However, the last component, Number of Eldritch Aura Activations per Second also grows exponentially in of itself.
This makes Eldritch Aura do ALOT more damage at character level 18 than level 10 than level 5.
The multiplier increases as such lvl 1: 1/8 -> lvl 6: 1/4 (double of lvl 1) -> lvl 12: 1/3 (x1.333 of lvl 6) -> lvl 18: 1/2 (x1.5 of lvl 12)(double of lvl 6)(four times of lvl 1).

Assuming Eldritch Aura is balanced around lvl 18, the growth of Eldritch Aura's speed (as in, the number of Eldritch Aura Activations per Second) should be more linear, considering that the combination of the various components of Eldritch Aura makes its DPS exponential.

Therefore, I recommend the growth to be something like lvl 1 : 1/6 -> lvl 3 1/5 -> lvl 6 1/3.5 -> lvl 12 1/2.7 -> lvl 18 1/2.
In other words, Aura occurs once every 6 secs -> 5 secs -> 3.5 secs -> 2.7 secs -> 2 seconds.
Another method it is make it always trigger every two seconds regardless of level, but make it only do 25% of the damage -> 40%-> 60% -> 80% -> 100%.


Basically, what I'm trying to say is, lets not make Eldritch Aura complete rubbish at low levels, despite being crazy good at the end game. Furthermore, it seems that Eldritch Aura wouldn't scale well into epics, plateauing at lvl 18 and progressing rather slowly at the epic levels, considering the hp inflation at epic levels.



Summon tree line: Summons aren't actually really good, be it in heroics or epics, especially considering Enlightened Spirit or Warlocks have neither a pet enhancement, a pet class, or have a good "summon monster I-IX" progression in their trees. Please consider removing it and replacing it something else more interesting/fun/useful.


Retribution: Is it just me or is 3d6 damage for 6 AP at T4 (not T5) that scales with spellpower really really powerful? I get that the tree itself do not have a spellpower boost, but this enhancement gives the biggest damage boost compared to any of the trees. KotC core 12 adds the same amount, but that one scales by MP instead of Spellpower, which is wildy different. And that's not even considering that it adds to aura AND to weapon damage. This is the only Eldritch Blast boost in this tree though, so maybe spread it around the tree or something.


Martial Proficiency: Could really use some help, prolly at level 6 or even lvl 3, considering that Warchanters get it at Core lvl 3, and Eldritch Knights gets it at T2 for 2 AP with +2 doublestrike.


Displacement SLA: Since Displacement is already a self-only spell, why not make it a Displacement toggle, ala Warpriest's permablur. Also, considering Warlocks already get displacement at spell level 3 (lvl 7), it might be only okay instead of really powerful. I wouldn't bump it to T4, since everyone will definitely dip into Warlock 4 for it, but how about something like (1 AP per level, Perma-Blur -> Perma-Displacement -> Perma-Displacement + Perma-Haste). Do remember that Warlocks already get haste at spell level 3, and pseudo perma-haste via invocation in PnP.


Break Forth SLA: This is literally Positive Energy Burst from Radiant Servant core lvl 6 without the Turn Undead limitation, so maybe combine it with beacon and make it 2 AP? Cause as a T5 its kinda lacking.


Resist Energies: I love the QoL improvement of this spell, but the spellcost is waay too exorbitant, considering the warlocks have a smaller pool to begin with.


Cure Moderate Wounds SLA: Its kinda odd that this is a T4 unless it cost no SP, otherwise consider making it Mass Cure Moderate Wounds instead.


Brute Fighting/Spellcasting: I get that this is a tank tree, but for a 1d6 class I highly doubt anyone will want this. There's also very little synergy with the tree, considering that it has none of those "If you get attacked/take damage, enemies..." abilities that Warpriest has. Please consider removing to make space.

Spellpower: I've noticed there is no Spellpower progression at Core 1 in this tree, so do take note of that for balancing. Sacred Defender does provide 1 Positive Spellpower per AP, and while Divine Discipline doesn't provide Spellpower per AP, they do have a spellpower line.

[Ausdoerrt]

• 1 AP, class level 1: Eldritch Aura: Stance: While this is active, your Eldritch Blast changes into an aura. It deals the same damage as your Eldritch Blast to all foes in range every 8 seconds. You cannot fire Eldritch Blasts while in this stance, but may attack normally with weapons and cast spells.

What is the range for the damage aura (and the aura bursts in the tree)? Depending on the range, it could either be great or completely useless to non-melee builds. I get that this is supposed to be a tanky/melee tree with synergy with PAL and MNK, but I like to look for ranged synergy when I can - and you have added some ranged options in this tree.

• 41 AP, class level 20: Celestial Spirit: +2 CON, +2 CHA.Toggle: When enabled, you float above the ground, gain Feather Falling, and are immune to knockdown effects. When enabled, your Eldritch Blasts gain 3d6 Light damage, and you gain 10 Melee Power, Ranged Power, and Universal Spell Power.

Please either make the second half of this capstone (light damage and M/R/SPower) passive, or make FF a separate toggle. I dislike Feather Falling unless I HAVE to use it, and have it off on most of my toons - I'm sure I can't be the only one.


Otherwise, the tree looks good to me, perhaps too much focus on tankiness.

Displacement SLA: Since Displacement is already a self-only spell, why not make it a Displacement toggle, ala Warpriest's permablur. Also, considering Warlocks already get displacement at spell level 3 (lvl 7), it might be only okay instead of really powerful. I wouldn't bump it to T4, since everyone will definitely dip into Warlock 4 for it, but how about something like (1 AP per level, Perma-Blur -> Perma-Displacement -> Perma-Displacement + Perma-Haste). Do remember that Warlocks already get haste at spell level 3, and pseudo perma-haste via invocation in PnP.

I support this. What's the point of a displacement SLA if Warlocks get the spell?

[Rautis]

Bewitching and Faltering Blast work as-written on Eldritch Aura, Eldritch Burst, and Spirit Blast.

Great news. Thanks!

It definitely could, if enough people think it should. On our end, we don't want it low enough where every single Warlock takes Martial Weapon Proficiency.

I fail to see how, if at all, Martial Weapon Proficiency would benefit Warlocks that use mainly other trees or Blast Shapes besides Eldritch Aura. Since Warlock gets Master's Touch as spell option I didn't consider them that much different from Bards, Wizards and Sorcerers who can pick Martial Weapon Proficiency 10 or 9 levels earlier for 7 or 6 action points invested. 12 levels is a long time to wait to be able to use a bow or your favored melee weapon. I wouldn't mind the level choice for this if it was in line with other comparable trees(and there was a time when it was). Currently it isn't.

We'd expect Pure 20 Warlocks in this tree (with splashing into the others) to be able to hold their own in a fight, but probably not be as strong with their weapon attacks as most Melee classes - They'll also be getting a big chunk of their damage out of the Aura and (as someone above called them) "Spirit Cleaves" (Eldritch Burst/Spirit Blast).

I agree with position where you place Warlock melee. However I think that currently Warlocks can get the least melee damage out of their enhancements. It's hard to say how it would exactly compare because Retribution scales with spell power and that depends how you're able to slot light spell power possibly on your melee weapon. For example trees like Eldritch Knight give more melee damage thanks to Doublestrike, Tenser's and Spellsword combined and then Wizards can conjure all kinds of persistent aoes and single target DOTs to compensate for lack of Eldritch Aura.

It would be nice to see possible Melee boosts in this tree even as multiselectors where it's defense vs. offense or Melee Damage vs. Eldritch Blast Damage. This way there's possibility for Warlocks who are using melee focused destinies for a reason or another to perform more reasonably. Nothing huge. It would be nice to be able to achieve melee performance about equal to Eldritch Knight Wizard or Warpriest Cleric as Warlock. I don't think that's currently happening. Aura damage is ofcourse a factor that is hard to figure out without testing. My guess is that it's either strong or good enough for heroics and then it gets comparably weaker in epics. There aren't any destinies that boost spell DPS as much as melee destinies can boost physical damage. And so far Warlock trees have no bonuses to physical attacks that scale at all with melee or ranged power.

"Spirit Cleaves" (Eldritch Burst/Spirit Blast).

These attacks can be useful for sure. Why do they share cooldown with actual cleaves? Would it be possible to rebalance them so that they wouldn't practically block Warlocks from picking actual Cleave and Great Cleave feats? For Paladin Knight of the Chalice it was much easier to understand the cooldown sharing. This is not good for build diversity. Pure Warlock melee cleaves would anyway be rather weak and if you multiclass your Eldritch Burst and Spirit Blast get weaker.

The only vague thing I might say is that I'd like to see more abilities that actually provide synergy with using weapons while having the aura on. There are some nice defensive buffs/healing, but unless I missed something (possible!) Retribution is the only thing that specifically acts as an non-aura offensive buff.

This is very nicely worded and pretty much what I'm thinking too. The tree in general is very nice.

[BananaHat]

From the base Warlock thread, Master's Touch was listed as a level 1 spell so that covers your martial weapon proficiency early. You can also take shield and displacement. Those abilities in this tree are really just saving you spell points. It would be nice if they got a little boost like eldritch knight does for mage armor (+AC) and shield (+PRR).

[spade413]

I love the tree.

My only real comment out of it is that Spirit Armor looks pretty underwhelming for a lvl 18 enhancement. I very much like the idea of it, but it doesn't scale into Epics well, particularly because Warlocks aren't going to be PRR/MRR intense, so in order to build the bonus up, you'll have already died. Rogues had a similar theme in one of their trees, with getting hit increasing dodge. A passive bonus would be better, but maybe not "special" enough.

Maybe a passive bonus based on the number of creatures around you? And, I say "creatures" intentionally. If the bonus also grows with allies around you, then there's motivation to group and to stay with the group, to bring a summons and a hireling. It also plays nicely with the other Summons buffs in the tree. Yes, there is definitely cheese that can come into it, but by placing a cap on the maximum bonus, this can easily be offset. For instance, +2 PRR/MRR for each creature within (insert distance), to a cap of Character Level.

[Silverleafeon]

I would think 18 warlock 2 fvs in Exalted Angel would work really well with this tree.

I agree, was thinking various Warlock X + Favored Soul 2~4 + Fighter 0~2 will be fairly popular beginning builds?

[Steelstar]

The Paladin and FvS auras should not be reused here imo.

Enlightened Spirits in the pen-and-paper 3.5e (Complete Mage, page 60) get both of these abilities at level 1 as class features, which is the primary reason for their inclusion.

In EE druids and artificers dont even summon pets because they kinda play for the other team there ... not able to survive, ... not able to DPS...

Pets/hirelings do have some AI issues that we're still working on. As for the Survivability/DPS end of things... that's a good argument for why abilities like this should be included. They won't improve if we don't add things to improve them.

Thanks for all the hard work devs.

Here are some quick reactions.

Eldritch Aura: The scaling throughout the heroic levels worries me with this ability.
The DPS of Eldritch Aura is calculated this way: Eldritch Blast Damage X Spellpower bonus X Spell Critical Modifier X DC Modifier X Number of Eldritch Aura Activations per Second
The first four components grow linearly, which combined already lead to an exponential growth of Eldritch Aura's DPS. However, the last component, Number of Eldritch Aura Activations per Second also grows exponentially in of itself.
This makes Eldritch Aura do ALOT more damage at character level 18 than level 10 than level 5.

We're still working on the balance, and if it's not good enough at low levels, or too good at high levels, we'll make adjustments; it's hard to say for sure until we get some builds running around with it. That said... it should do a lot more damage at 18 than, and a lot more at 10 than 5. We still want it to be viable for Multiclass Warlocks (who won't get as many Pact dice but will still scale with Spell Power), but it should shine on Pure/mainline Warlocks.

Retribution: Is it just me or is 3d6 damage for 6 AP at T4 (not T5) that scales with spellpower really really powerful? I get that the tree itself do not have a spellpower boost, but this enhancement gives the biggest damage boost compared to any of the trees. KotC core 12 adds the same amount, but that one scales by MP instead of Spellpower, which is wildy different. And that's not even considering that it adds to aura AND to weapon damage. This is the only Eldritch Blast boost in this tree though, so maybe spread it around the tree or something.

It may be too big. This ability came in to replace something else after Player's Council feedback, relatively close to this post. We'll take a look.

Cure Moderate Wounds SLA: Its kinda odd that this is a T4 unless it cost no SP, otherwise consider making it Mass Cure Moderate Wounds instead.

It has a small SP cost, but Warlocks do not get access to the Cure spells in their spell list, and the only other Healing abilities Warlocks get in their trees have extensive cooldowns. This one is fast.

Spellpower: I've noticed there is no Spellpower progression at Core 1 in this tree, so do take note of that for balancing. Sacred Defender does provide 1 Positive Spellpower per AP, and while Divine Discipline doesn't provide Spellpower per AP, they do have a spellpower line.

This tree has a small Spell Power line in Power of Enlightenment, where you can get 30 (Light or Positive) plus 12 Universal Spell Power. If that, combined with other sources of Spell Power, still leaves Warlocks underpowered we'll look into adding some other sources in the trees.

What is the range for the damage aura (and the aura bursts in the tree)? Depending on the range, it could either be great or completely useless to non-melee builds. I get that this is supposed to be a tanky/melee tree with synergy with PAL and MNK, but I like to look for ranged synergy when I can - and you have added some ranged options in this tree.

Still subject to change, but right now it's about the same size as Death Aura, or any other "Standard" AOE - ~5 meters.

These attacks can be useful for sure. Why do they share cooldown with actual cleaves? Would it be possible to rebalance them so that they wouldn't practically block Warlocks from picking actual Cleave and Great Cleave feats? For Paladin Knight of the Chalice it was much easier to understand the cooldown sharing. This is not good for build diversity. Pure Warlock melee cleaves would anyway be rather weak and if you multiclass your Eldritch Burst and Spirit Blast get weaker.

The main reason is actually build diversity. For a lot of melees who splash into Warlock to get the aspects of this tree, the Aura alone is going to be a somewhat substantial bump in DPS. Tying these two abilities to the cooldown of Cleave means characters in this tree fall into one of three categories:

- Cleave/Great Cleave is stronger than Eldritch Burst/Spirit Blast. This will probably be true for low-level splashes and multiclasses with low Spell Power (but a lot of item effects), like Fighters. In that case, keep using Cleaves.

- Eldritch Burst/Spirit Blast is stronger than Cleave/Great Cleave. If you're a pure Warlock, or multiclassed something martial with a lot of spell power (a melee Arti, or an Eldritch Knight), this will probably be true. In this case, you may want to use Eldritch Burst/Spirit Blast instead of Cleave/Great Cleave.

- You're playing a character that couldn't use Cleave/Great Cleave anyway. Like a bow user, or pure caster that dumped STR. Hey, this choice is easy! Take EB/SB if you think you'll have enemies in that range often, or just ignore the line.

Essentially, the point is to encourage different styles for different kinds of characters, so the right choice isn't *always* to take *both* this line and the Cleave line for Melee Warlocks. Cleave builds are really good right now (lookin' at you, Barbarians) - This is an alternative, and it doesn't cost two Feat slots.

My only real comment out of it is that Spirit Armor looks pretty underwhelming for a lvl 18 enhancement. I very much like the idea of it, but it doesn't scale into Epics well, particularly because Warlocks aren't going to be PRR/MRR intense, so in order to build the bonus up, you'll have already died. Rogues had a similar theme in one of their trees, with getting hit increasing dodge. A passive bonus would be better, but maybe not "special" enough.

I may be wrong (please correct me if I am), but I believe you can get more PRR and MRR out of this Enhancement Tree than any other Enhancement Tree in the game... Standing still and wearing Medium armor, you get 19 PRR and 29 MRR out of this tree, which goes up to 39 PRR and 49 MRR when you get Spirit Armor fully running. (Note: I noticed that Spiritual Bastion and Spiritual Ward don't say that you also get the Allies portion yourself. Right now, you do. We'll fix the wording.) That's on top of your armor and any other external sources, plus you're buffing your friends' PRR/MRR as well. If we switched it to a static bonus, it'd be a smaller bonus, and a lot less interesting. Nobody likes getting hit, but if you can survive a few seconds of it, you'll be good for the fight.