Warlock Enhancements: Souleater

[BananaHat]

4) Steal life force: i dont think the healing needs to be equal with the damage done, 25-30% of that is plenty to stay alive (for a mostly ranged guy anyway) with little investment, or is this an melee range clicky?

So....
9d6, assuming DDO weighted die of 1d3+3 is 45. 31.5 for unweighted.
Toss in a positive spellpower of say... 300, which I think would be decent for a Warlock who tries, makes this 180 weighted, 126 unweighted.
You probably get double that from healing amp with realistic effort, so call it 360 weighted, 252 unweighted.

Is this decent? Yeah, it is worth using. Assuming the cooldown stays at 20 seconds, I think this is reasonable considering you need to hit a mob to heal with it. A lot of abilities (Heal, reconstruct, negative energy burst, maybe cure or repair crit) achieve these numbers with a much smaller cooldown. The reconstruct is available to anyone with bladeforged.

So please explain why 90/63 healing every 20 seconds is plenty to stay alive at hitting epics/end game. That is worse than chugging potions.

[Janitorman]

Souleater
Your pact makes you an extension of your patron's hunger. You body and mind become more inhuman, and your ability to consume the souls and life force of your enemies also feeds your patrons. Your attacks erode the life essence of your targets.
[*]Devour the Soul: Passive: +4 Charisma. Active: Necromantic Spell. You consume the soul of your targeted enemy, killing them instantly unless they make a Will saving throw with a DC of 18 + Warlock level + Charisma bonus. This ability works on undead, but not constructs and other creatures with no lifeforce. Some bosses may be immune. If the target survives then it loses 20 PRR and MRR for 6 seconds. Cooldown: 15 seconds.[/LIST]



Sev~

Just want some clarification on the Some bosses part... meaning some bosses (red or purple named) can now be instakilled with a failed will save?

[dunklezhan]

How about you make blindness on EB as a part of the capstone for Enlightened Spirit then? That's certainly a powerful level 20 ability that would help a melee ranged warlock greatly in combination with blur effects.

It sounds hilarious and fun - but will it be worth it at that point without much by way of spell pen? I suppose with enough past lives and the feats it would work pretty nicely but what about a 1st lifer? I dont' mean in EE particularly, I'm just thinking Level 20+ in general.

[Seikojin]

Crazy idea: Make the Blindness SLA an "Eldritch Essence" or an eldritch blast attack.

Or use a celestia while being a warlock.

[Severlin]

Just want some clarification on the Some bosses part... meaning some bosses (red or purple named) can now be instakilled with a failed will save?

It works like all other Death type effects where some creatures are immune.

Sev~

[LordTigerDawn]

Dark Feeding: (2 AP) Multi-selector: Choose a magical attack with a cooldown of 16 seconds. Enemies can negate the ability score damage (but not your ability score gain) with a Will saving throw: DC of 14 + Character Level + Charisma Modifier. These effects do not stack with themselves.

Your Flesh is Weak: Activate this ability to cause 1d8+2 Strength damage to your opponent for 20 seconds. You gain an Insight bonus of 1d8+2 Strength for 20 seconds.
You Cannot Evade Me: Activate this ability to cause 1d8+2 Dexterity damage to your opponent for 20 seconds. You gain an Insight bonus of 1d8+2 Dexterity for 20 seconds.
Your Will is Mine: Activate this ability to cause 1d8+2 Wisdom damage to your opponent for 20 seconds. You gain an Insight bonus of 1d8+2 Wisdom for 20 seconds.
Food For Thought: Activate this ability to cause 1d8+2 Intelligence damage to your opponent for 20 seconds. You gain an Insight bonus of 1d8+2 Intelligence for 20 seconds.
Blood Feast: Activate this ability to cause 1d8+2 Constitution damage to your opponent for 20 seconds. You gain an Insight bonus of 1d8+2 Constitution for 20 seconds.

**********

I have a concern with this:
I remember a while ago, there was a serious lag concern with abilities that would turn off and force the recalculation of skills based on certain stats. I believe this was change to only update the relevant skills on a time period 15 sec or a minute etc. Something anyways...

This changing a primary stat every 20 secs then reapplying it might create a large lag issue especially at the end time, which will be every 20 secs. Making this ability very unplayable.

I would suggest changing this to be something like Shadow Dodge in Rogue, that gives a profane bonus to a stat (very unique, and very warlock) with some other minor tweek (perma: see invis for instance, or maybe perma something depending on stat chosen (focusing chant, remove fear, detect secret doors,rage (as spell),jump, longstrider,pass without a trace etc.).

This will avoid the skill recalculate and any other timing associated issues with increasing and decreasing a stat every 20 seconds. Something that is really just better off avoided.

*****

Did you ever notice how many lvl 1-2 spells that are barely used, but would be used all the time if they were a perma toggle of some sort??

[Failedlegend]

Having an effect that procs blindness randomly while throwing Eldritch Blasts is not really the effect we are looking for in this particular tree. Not only does it take away tactical decision making in favor of random procs, but it is also less useful for Souleater multi-classes that want to use weapons.

Sev~

How about you make blindness on EB as a part of the capstone for Enlightened Spirit then? That's certainly a powerful level 20 ability that would help a melee ranged warlock greatly in combination with blur effects.

ummm....aside from switching it to Enlightened Spirit that still causes the same issue Sev mentioned and I agree with him, randomly proccing blindness would be annoying.

[HastyPudding]

ummm....aside from switching it to Enlightened Spirit that still causes the same issue Sev mentioned and I agree with him, randomly proccing blindness would be annoying.

100% agreed. Blindness is a spell best used on troublesome mobs like champion fighters/barbarians or hard-hitting backstabbers like the ones in detour/high road. A nonstop aoe chance of blindness would be beyond infuriating for most melee classes.

[HatsuharuZ]

100% agreed. Blindness is a spell best used on troublesome mobs like champion fighters/barbarians or hard-hitting backstabbers like the ones in detour/high road. A nonstop aoe chance of blindness would be beyond infuriating for most melee classes.

Oh, that makes sense. Crazy suggestion retracted.

[LrdSlvrhnd]

I have a concern with this:
I remember a while ago, there was a serious lag concern with abilities that would turn off and force the recalculation of skills based on certain stats. I believe this was change to only update the relevant skills on a time period 15 sec or a minute etc. Something anyways...

This changing a primary stat every 20 secs then reapplying it might create a large lag issue especially at the end time, which will be every 20 secs. Making this ability very unplayable.

AFAIK, this has to do with CHA and, specifically, UMD (IIRC, it had something to do with recalculating whether or not you could use *every* restricted item in your backpack). Note the one stat that *can't* be affected by this *g*

(This is why Fatesinger's Glitter of Fame was changed to give CHA permanently - A Fatesinger would take enough damage to get below 10% and then lag while everything UMD'able recalculated and be unable to heal up. (The CON part was added when it was pointed out that "Hey, you just got knocked down to 10% damage, and now are maybe taking another 28 HP hit because you lost a point of CON..."))

[Lonnbeimnech]

If you want to randomly proc blindness go fey pact (it still does sonic damage, right?) and wear the nightsinger's mantle

[dlsidhe]

...after thinking about it (and inspecting the tree more), this is a nice tree. My initial suggestions would have been really OP, especially with the projected rate of fire on eldritch blasts..

That said, things I like, and how they can be improved.

1. I like the +1 melee/ranged damage per core, but with Charisma being the focus stat a bonus to hit would also be nice. As stated by someone else, +1 Profane bonus to enhancement value for weapons would add spellpower and melee effectiveness.
2. Consume is a sweet DoT - if I'm adding it up correctly, you can end up with 12d10 of raw damage, increased by spellpower, every 3 seconds, plus it adding debuffs.
3. Similarly, Stricken comes out to 18d6 of bane damage with crazy debuffs. Sweet.
4. Flavor-wise, I feel like Consume should have a slight healing/temp HP buff for the caster. If you're magically eating your enemies, it should give you something back. Or, even better (and slightly crazy), the capstone could make Consume restore 6d6 SP every time an enemy dies while marked as consumed, tying into the Souleating AND the Warlock's infinite casting.
5. On a similar note, Stricken's debuffs should benefit the entire party - when the Stricken line is maxed out, a Stricken enemy should get a stack of vulnerable on damage, full-stop, not just when you damage the enemy personally.
6. I dig that the Souleater is becoming more inhuman as they get more powerful; I think it's missing out on an opportunity to bring Pact into play. Eldritch Seeker is cool, but multiselectoring it with Pact flavor? Even better. I'll detail those below.

Okay, Eldritch Seeker. +5% chance to crit with any spell or your EB. That's awesome. That's like a +1 to crit range for melee. Melee characters get this and other bonuses in one enhancement, frequently (Swashbuckling, Knife Master, etc.). So, add a selector, just as an example. Nothing OP, just drawing on lore a bit and looking at other enhancement trees:

Fey Pact - Good Neighbor: Some neighbors bring cookies to the party, some bring wine. You know that an archfey party starts with the souls of your screaming enemies. You gain immunity to sleep, exhaustion, dancing, and despair.

Fiend Pact - Black Butler: When the pit fiend demanded the souls of the condemned, you didn't ask questions. The witnesses only said that the butler did it. You gain +15 Resistance to Fire and Acid and +6 spell resistance.

Great Old Ones Pact - Enthralled Chef: When they come back, you'll be eaten first because you brought good appetizers. You gain immunity to confusion and blindness, and +4 to saves against stuns.

[Lanadazia]

this tree looks interessting, but i fear it will be not as efficient as the other 2 trees in heroic content, since most stuff dies before you can build up your dots.
i don't think its an issue tho, its just a little slower play-pattern then. the time you wait while your dots are ramping up makes this a good dps toon in EEs and raids, since you'll be able to get out your full potential there on high hp monsters/bosses

[nnocturne]

A very interesting tree. I'll definitely be creating a souleater. One small thing though: Inhuman assumes that the character is human. Perhaps unnatural, beastial or aberrant would be more appropriate?

[Rinnaldo]

- I would have liked to see the iconic 'Devour Magic' invocation warlocks get in PnP in this tree, maybe as a single target ranged magical attack. Warlock was pretty much the tops when it came to dispelling enemy buffs. Perhaps a 'renamed' mordenkainen's disjunction SLA in tier 4 or 5 with a balanced cooldown to match. If it works, you can maybe gain 20/30/40 temporary HP. It fits perfectly in the souleater's theme.

I really like this tree, and this suggestion, too. I never use dispels because they seem like a waste of time. HOWEVER, it would feel worthwhile of I were siphoning off buffs from npcs to give myself spell points. Or, even better, to TRANSFER a given buff from the npc to me. Now THAT would be a thematic Souleater power.

[Silverleafeon]

Souleater
Your pact makes you an extension of your patron's hunger. You body and mind become more inhuman, and your ability to consume the souls and life force of your enemies also feeds your patrons. Your attacks erode the life essence of your targets.

First read thru, pardon typing, having to partly hunt and peck.
Nice theme, balances out the light theme with darkness.



ty for the picture

Core Abilities

• Inhuman Deadliness: You gain +1 damage with melee and ranged attacks and +5 Universal Spell Power for each core ability you take in this tree.
• Inhuman Nature: You gain +25% Fortification and +4 Saving Throws versus Poison and Disease.
• No Worse Fate: You gain immunity to Fear. Your melee, ranged and Eldritch Blast attacks also give the target the Shaken effect. Although this ability has no saving throw it can only occur once every second.
• Inhuman Nature: You gain +25% Fortification and +4 Saving Throws versus Poison and Disease. Your Consume damage over time is increased by 1d10. Your Stricken damage is increased by 3d6. Your Greater Hunger on hit damage is increased by 1d6.
• Eldritch Seeker: You gain +5% chance to critically hit with your spells and Eldritch Blast.
• Devour the Soul: Passive: +4 Charisma. Active: Necromantic Spell. You consume the soul of your targeted enemy, killing them instantly unless they make a Will saving throw with a DC of 18 + Warlock level + Charisma bonus. This ability works on undead, but not constructs and other creatures with no lifeforce. Some bosses may be immune. If the target survives then it loses 20 PRR and MRR for 6 seconds. Cooldown: 15 seconds.

Spell power in cores yielding +30 is nice. compares well with typical gains.

+50 fort is very welcome, will make a difference sometimes, I know druid waterform +100 fort is extremely good at times

Immunity to fear is something I augment now a days on purpose, so its welcome.

Shaken is a nice debuff for DCs will include in the total goal of +4 DCs for a typical Warlock tree due to heighten only reaching lvl 6.

I like the scaling of your 3 free attacks.

+8 spell crit is huge, so +5 as core 18 is nice, maybe a bit light, but ill take it as acceptable.

+4 cha counts as +1 DC above normal
A few cooldown 15 sec instant kill for a capstone, i like alot.
I assume its zero sp cost, if not, please make it thus.
Not sure about the DC math, but since Sev posted it, ill assume you have already worked that out.
It looks decent.
Overall, great capstone.
Overall, good to great cores.


Tier One

• Consume: (2 AP) Ranged magical attack. Your magics consume bits of your opponent's form, disintegrating bits of them for 1d10 untyped damage every 2 seconds for a duration of 16 seconds. The effect can stack up to 3 times. Consume damage is increased with Spellpower. Your enemy is also marked with the Consumed trait. Cooldown 10 seconds.
• Subtle Spellcasting: (1/1/1 AP) Your attacks and spells generate 10%/20%/30% less hate than they normally would, making enemies less likely to attack you.
• Taint the Blood: (2 AP) Your Eldritch Blast, Melee and Ranged attacks reduce the Fortitude saving throw of the target by -1. The effect stacks up to 4 times.
• Daunting Presence: (1/1/1 AP) +1/+2/+3 Bluff, Haggle, and Diplomacy. Rank 3: +1 Will saves.
• Hungry for Destruction: (1/1/1 AP) You gain +1/+2/+3 Melee Power and Ranged Power, and +2/+4/+6 Universal Spellpower.

I assume Consume is zero sp cost.
If not, please make it zero sp, and consider the feedback on this tree to be null and void if it will cost sp.
Looks interesting.

Subtle Spellcasting is always welcome.

Taint the blood provides an additional debuff working towards that +4 dc gap already mentioned.
It also helps party members.

Daunting presence is a typical tier 1 skill set. Not exciting but very acceptable.

Hungry for is a great dps boost for melee and spell casting I like.

Overall, excellent tier.
Consume looks good but needs to scale as we build in the tree.
Not sure if it will scale enough but zero sp cost is very attractive.



Tier Two

• Stricken: (1/1/1 AP) Ranged magical attack. You cause 3d6/6d6/9d6 bane damage and reduce the Healing Amplification of the opponent by 40/80/120 for 12 seconds. The reduction is negated by a Fortitude saving throw with a DC of 10/14/18 + Warlock level + the higher or Intelligence or Charisma Modifier. The damage scales with Spellpower. Your enemy is also marked with the Strickened trait. Cooldown 10 seconds.
• Taint the Aura: (2 AP) Against targets marked by your Consume attack: Your melee, ranged and Eldritch Blast attacks reduce the Spell Resistance, PRR and MRR of the target by -2 for 10 seconds. The effect stacks up to 5 times.
• Feeding Frenzy: (1 AP) When you use Consume on an enemy the feeding increases your movement speed by 1% per Warlock level for 20 seconds.
• Consume Sight: (2 AP) SLA Blindness.
• Hungry for Destruction: (1/1/1 AP) You gain +1/+2/+3 Melee Power and Ranged Power, and +2/+4/+6 Universal Spellpower.

Second I assume zero cost attack.
9d6 every 10 seconds seems quality to me.

Great themes going here with foe debuffs and marking foes with conditions; very warlock like imho

Taint is a great debuff for party members to works on the difficult Spell pen checks situations faced by non completionist toons.

Frenzy is great, movement boosts are always a big treat for players. ty

Another DPS boost for melee, ranged, and usp.

{It looks like you are rating Melee Power = 2X USP.
If so, then we can rate changes to Epic Power as +6 USP which is on the light side for me, as I rated it more like +10 USP; however I could accept a 2X at heroic levels easily. The rate of exchange for Epic levels might be 3X?}

Overall, nice tier.


Tier Three

• Dark Feeding: (2 AP) Multi-selector: Choose a magical attack with a cooldown of 16 seconds. Enemies can negate the ability score damage (but not your ability score gain) with a Will saving throw: DC of 14 + Character Level + Charisma Modifier. These effects do not stack with themselves.
  
  • Your Flesh is Weak: Activate this ability to cause 1d8+2 Strength damage to your opponent for 20 seconds. You gain an Insight bonus of 1d8+2 Strength for 20 seconds.
  • You Cannot Evade Me: Activate this ability to cause 1d8+2 Dexterity damage to your opponent for 20 seconds. You gain an Insight bonus of 1d8+2 Dexterity for 20 seconds.
  • Your Will is Mine: Activate this ability to cause 1d8+2 Wisdom damage to your opponent for 20 seconds. You gain an Insight bonus of 1d8+2 Wisdom for 20 seconds.
  • Food For Thought: Activate this ability to cause 1d8+2 Intelligence damage to your opponent for 20 seconds. You gain an Insight bonus of 1d8+2 Intelligence for 20 seconds.
  • Blood Feast: Activate this ability to cause 1d8+2 Constitution damage to your opponent for 20 seconds. You gain an Insight bonus of 1d8+2 Constitution for 20 seconds.
• Strickened Soul: (1 AP) Against targets marked by your Stricken attack: Your Eldritch Blast, Melee and Ranged attacks reduce the target's Melee Power, Ranged Power and Spellpower by 10 + 1/2 Warlock level for 10 seconds.
• Eldritch Projection: (2 AP) Toggle. Your Eldritch Blast now acts as a cone attack, but has Standard Cone AoE range.
• SLA: Burning Blood. (1 AP) Cooldown 10 seconds.
• Charisma/Intelligence (2 AP)

Very interesting, an ability score drain along with a very welcome ability score boost. Duration exceeds cooldown and it looks very warlock and very interesting. Definately something different.

More foe debuffs which is very warlock.
I assume that epic foes will not recover these debuffs super quick.
If they do, then consider that you are simply wasting my and your time with this tree.

Love the cone attack.

I assume burning blood is zero sp cost.
Its a great warlock type sla. I assume one can apply metamagics to it for free.

Cha or Int seems good for this tree.
I have not seen a conversion for EB to Int anywhere, have you considered thus?
Otherwise, Int options seem mostly pointed at Warlock 2~7ish levels with Wizard 18~13?
Options are good anyway.


Tier Four

• Greater Hunger: (2 AP) Your Consume damage over time is increased by 1d10. Your Stricken damage is increased by 3d6. Your melee, ranged and Eldritch Blast attacks do 2d6 untyped damage when striking an opponent marked by your Consume attack.
• Strickened Form: (2 AP) Against targets marked by your Stricken attack: Your melee, ranged and Eldritch Blast attacks cause 1 Vulnerability for 10 seconds. (Vulnerability: You take 1% more damage for 3 seconds. This effect stacks up to 20 times, and loses one stack on expiration.)
• Steal Lifeforce: (1/1/1 AP) Multiselector:
  
  • Activated Attack: You cause 3d6/6d6/9d6 damage to your target and heal with positive energy for the same amount. This damage and healing scales with Spellpower. Cooldown 20 seconds.
  • Activated Attack: You cause 3d6/6d6/9d6 damage to your target and heal with negative energy the same amount. This damage and healing scales with Spellpower. Cooldown 20 seconds.
  
  
• Immortal Will: +1 to the DC of Enchantment, Illusion and Necromancy spells.
• Charisma/Intelligence

Great hunger looks good with continued scalling of consume.
Great theme and thoughts in the tree.
Will be interested to see how it works on the battlefield.

Striken Form looks good.
Is there is limit (per second) on vunerability?
Since it maxs at 20, I don't a problem with no limit.
Nice debuff and very warlock.

I love the steal lifeforce, brings theme forward and provides much needed self healing.
20 seconds is good enough for support without being overpowered.
Cocoon and potions can fill in.
If needed Exalted Angel / Unyielding / Crusader can provide additional self healing as desired.
Also Bladeforged will do their reconstruct SLA.

Oh, a tier 4 +1 DC.
Ok that is 2 of 4 DC boosts desired, plus multiple debuff options.
Proofreading, and the ability bonus provided by Darkfeeding should more than take care of the DC gaps. Well done.

Overall, nice tier, I like it.
Need to see it on the battlefield, but its a nice theme.



Tier Five

• Supreme Hunger: (2 AP) Your Consume damage over time is increased by 1d10. Your Stricken damage is increased by 3d6. Your Greater Hunger on hit damage is increased by 1d6.
• Eldritch Wave: (2 AP) Activated Attack. Your create a cone of eldritch energy that strikes all opponents in the area with three consecutive Eldritch Blasts. Cooldown 8 seconds.
• Feed on Magic: (2 AP) When you strike an opponent with your melee attacks, ranged attacks or Eldritch Blast there is a chance equal to half Warlock level for you to gain 30 temporary spell points. This can occur no more than once per 6 seconds.
• Spell Tearing: (2 AP) You gain +3% chance to critically hit with your spells and Eldritch Blast.
• SLA: Finger of Death. (2 AP) Cooldown 15 seconds

Tier 5 which should be uber.

I like the increasing scaling of you free attacks.

Eldritch Wave looks very good with a low cooldown. Five stars for it.

Feed on magic is a great tier 5. Does this include levels added by epic destinies?

Ok, here is the other 3% crit bonus. Nicely done.

I assume the finger of death is zero sp cost.
I assume the finger of death sla will not place the finger of death spell on cooldown.
And if so, I like thus.

I am a bit surprised to not see another +1 DC, however previous debuffs mentioned will imho make up for the 2 DC gap we have present here and possibly exceed it (except maybe for red/purple named). I do like moving the +1 DC to tier 4 leaving it open for other trees.

Note the Souleater is not planned for the first Lamannia release. Players will likely see it in action for the second Lamannia release.

np

Sev~

Overall, I like this alot, very warlock and seem to theme well.
Obviously the issues with EB are critical.


I highly recommend changing Epic Power to add:
+10 universal Spell power
+15% spell crit damage

I also recommend putting all ED inates on review for 0~5 universal spell power.
This can be considered a balancing function.

This will allow you to better scale the epic design problems.

If you feel this is too strong, then how about trying:

Epic Power additions
+6 universal Spell power
+10% spell crit damage

Epic Destiny Innates:
+2 universal Spell Power
+2% spell crit damage.

I do feel this is more important and much easier to do than the mention Epic Dot.
Although I will welcome an Epic Dot.


Also, I would like to recommend:

Epic Empower add +75 spell power, there is no sp cost.
Anti requisite Empower min level 24

Epic Maximize add +150 spell power, there is no sp cost.
Anti requisite Maximize min level 27

Epic Combat Casting your spells cannot be interrupted
requirement mobile spellcasting min level 30

Obviously, if you went this route, spellcaster would be ok with the second more moderate epic power addition,
and you would have much more variety of spell casting along with less SLA problems.

If free sp is considered too powerful, perhaps consider greatly reduced sp costs such as

Epic Empower add +75 spell power, there is 5 sp cost.
Anti requisite Empower min level 21

Epic Maximize add +150 spell power, there is 10 sp cost.
Anti requisite Maximize min level 24

Please realize that so many spell casting options simply dissapear due to HUGE hit point increases, thereby making metamagic use in epics impossible, thereby reducing spellcasting DPS in epics.

Another alternative is:
Epic Metamagics: the total sp cost of your metamatics is reduced by X% {half?} before {after?} applying other modifiers.
requirement have taken a metamagic feat min level 24~27

Obviously, I am trying to provide various solutions for you to pick and choose from, also to evolve as you please.

Thanks for reading.

Keep up the good work, and I am overall very pleased with Warlock and the current 2015 plans.

[Drathsiddh]

I'm not seeing how this tree works. It seems a little odd that Consume and Stricken are Ranged magical attacks. As it is Warlocks get almost no outright damage dealing spells, and added to that, you give the tree which is supposed to support their spell-casting ability Ranged Magical attacks, which can't be Meta'd, how exactly ARE they supposed to deal damage if the bulk of the points are in this tree? Change Consume and Stricken to SLAs please.

[HastyPudding]

I'm not seeing how this tree works. It seems a little odd that Consume and Stricken are Ranged magical attacks. As it is Warlocks get almost no outright damage dealing spells, and added to that, you give the tree which is supposed to support their spell-casting ability Ranged Magical attacks, which can't be Meta'd, how exactly ARE they supposed to deal damage if the bulk of the points are in this tree? Change Consume and Stricken to SLAs please.

Consume and Stricken aren't supposed to be high damage abilities. They're debuffs. If they killed enemies too quickly the debuff and their added effects would be pointless. They're really meant for orange/red/purple names, anyway (so say the devs). I can see them becoming very useful in high level EH and any EE quest where bosses can sometimes be problematic.

[Drathsiddh]

Consume and Stricken aren't supposed to be high damage abilities. They're debuffs. If they killed enemies too quickly the debuff and their added effects would be pointless. They're really meant for orange/red/purple names, anyway (so say the devs). I can see them becoming very useful in high level EH and any EE quest where bosses can sometimes be problematic.

So how is a Soul Eater supposed to deal damage via spells? The way I understand these trees is Enlightend Spirit: Melee, Tainted Scholar: EB, Soul Eater:Spells. But looking at the tree, it looks like Soul Eater doesn't deal much damage in anyway. They don't get any direct damage dealing SLAs or even spells for that matter. Yeah, they can use insta-kills in the higher levels, if they can land it (hmm.... I don't recall any spell-pen in these trees). So Devs: when are the new spells (if any) coming out? If not change the Lock spell list and add a few damage dealing spells, (Neg Eng Ray at lvl 3?) but don't go crazy on it. Keep things in perspective. Spells like burning hands are no-goes.

[HastyPudding]

So how is a Soul Eater supposed to deal damage via spells? The way I understand these trees is Enlightend Spirit: Melee, Tainted Scholar: EB, Soul Eater:Spells. But looking at the tree, it looks like Soul Eater doesn't deal much damage in anyway. They don't get any direct damage dealing SLAs or even spells for that matter. Yeah, they can use insta-kills in the higher levels, if they can land it (hmm.... I don't recall any spell-pen in these trees). So Devs: when are the new spells (if any) coming out? If not change the Lock spell list and add a few damage dealing spells, (Neg Eng Ray at lvl 3?) but don't go crazy on it. Keep things in perspective. Spells like burning hands are no-goes.

Souleater isn't a spell damage tree. Think of souleater as the more traditional warlock role you'll find in most games; debuffing, damage over time, and death effects, it's why they have 2 hard debuffs, vulnerability on attacks, a spell resistance debuff, stat and HP stealing, blindness and finger SLA's, and things like that. Tainted scholar has all the eldritch blast effects, extra spells, crowd control, and the most direct damage abilities (souleater has a couple, but not as much as the scholar). Both souleater and scholar share the magical aspect of warlocks, but scholar is more about spells and damage and souleater is more about debuffing. Scholar is more damage-friendly and souleater is more party-friendly. If you want a damage-dealer, go with the scholar, and if you want somebody that can weaken red named bosses and heavily debuffing anything they look at, go with the souleater.