Pure Casting Warlock DC Eld Blast Build

[mr420247]

Tsunami instantly blows out all the cloud kills so you don't have to mess with scrolls and i'm guessing its great against the druid quakes too

I was testing bogw but now im full on loving my howl of terror its great for reapers and plants and the timer is very fast half cost of mass holds

Barely ever use my bogw or soundburst now but there aren't any other real epic feats worth taking

[mikarddo]

Great post, thank you for sharing.

Does the 61 heal amp from the trinket stack with the 30 and 50 heal amp from the off hand weapon?

How does the Spells Saves interact with Resistance?

If mostly running low reaper quests and normal/hard raids - would it be viable to work in Wisdom (gear mostly) and Mass Frog for use in select raids (at most on Hard)?

[slarden]

Great post, thank you for sharing.

Does the 61 heal amp from the trinket stack with the 30 and 50 heal amp from the off hand weapon?

How does the Spells Saves interact with Resistance?

If mostly running low reaper quests and normal/hard raids - would it be viable to work in Wisdom (gear mostly) and Mass Frog for use in select raids (at most on Hard)?

The 61 heal amp from cannith crafting is a competence bonus and stacks with the 30 enhancement bonus from lgs tier 1 and the 50 equipment bonus from tier 2. If you could fit in mysterious cloak that would also stack since it’s an exceptional bonus.

Spell saves stacks with resistance items according to prior dev posts but only for spells. My reflex isn’t top tier and I seem to make my saves most of the time.

I haven’t tested with mass frog, but according to a recent post in the general discussion area you can get some use out of it. The gearing is too complex for me to work it in.

[Vish]

Tsunami instantly blows out all the cloud kills so you don't have to mess with scrolls and i'm guessing its great against the druid quakes too

I was testing bogw but now im full on loving my howl of terror its great for reapers and plants and the timer is very fast half cost of mass holds

Barely ever use my bogw or soundburst now but there aren't any other real epic feats worth taking

I find bogw to be very useful,
I often tentacle first, but if you have melees, following up with bogw makes them helpless, and melee just tear right thru
I have also used it as instant cc when you have stuff chasing up on you. It freezes then gives you enough time to tgt fod and instakills.
In general, bogw is the only one I'd keep out of the ones I use.
I don't use howl that much, didn't know it paralyzed reapers. So will test it out.
Haven't seen anyone use tsunami.

[AreagonTF]

What weapons do you use for leveling up ? And what skilld so you level up(like use magic device etc...)?

[slarden]

What weapons do you use for leveling up ? And what skilld so you level up(like use magic device etc...)?

Buried in my original post is a leveling plan which I am copying here for convenience. The gear is listed below. Key thing is taking maximize and empower quick as consume and stricken are really front loaded. The first few levels are not great so I just use a weapon with master's touch for proficiency. For skills priority is spellcraft, secondary is UMD and concentration.

If you haven't tried out cannith crafting, there are some nice guides in the crafting section of the forum. It makes leveling much easier.

Heroic Leveling Plan
Warlock is underwhelming the first few levels. I take master's touch at level 1 and nightshield at level 2. Nightshield is a must. Once I get to cone I switch to casting and swap out master's touch for false life which acts as a healing spell in reaper and then swap it out once I am comfortable with my self healing. With master's touch I dual wield two battle axes and while not as good as a properly built melee it's still good dps for low levels. I switch to pure casting once I get the cone.

The feat order previously listed is the order I take my feats. Think SLAs at low levels as they benefit from the maximize/empower at levels 1-3 which boost spellpower on SLAs by 225. In particular stricken one shots almost everything at low levels. So I take consume and stricken while working my way up to cone. DPS is first priority because you don't take much damage if you are killing things faster. The combo of stricken, consume and cone is really great. Once I have cone (12 AP) I start working on tainted scholar. First priority is feigned health 3 ranks, then 1 pt in command and then 3 pts in wand and scroll mastery. This is is 8 pts in tainted scholar for exactly 20 points total.

I normally don't take my next level until I already have all 4 action points from the next level with level 1 being an exception. At level 1 I run Kobold's New Ringleader once with a 50% pot or repeat on elite without a pot. This gets you to level 2 which I take immediately for the 2nd level 1 spell. Then I take all the level 2 non-solo quests which takes me to the last rank of level 3 or maxed out and 1 xp away from 4. Then I take 3 and do the same for all levels. This means at level 3 you will have 12 AP, 16 at 4, 20 at 5 etc.

So at level 5 you have stricken, consume, cone for dps and false life + cure critical wound scrolls boosted by feigned health. At this point your dps as a caster is not as good as a properly build ranged or melee character but you can easily defeat reaper content. at low levels as a warlock I run reaper 1 at level because very little rxp is gained by boosting skull level at low levels due to the way the formula works.

So once you have that core 20 AP at level 5, reaper 1 is fairly easy. Use stricken on reapers and champs as that is your best single-target dps.

This it the optimal first 20 AP for all builds in my opinion regardless of final enhancement tree and pact. Once you get past the first 20 there are many options that work and it's more art than science.

The basic options are:
1) work your way up soul eater starting with burning blood for another sla benefiting from metamagic. I also take steal life force for heroic leveling which benefits from metamagic and provides a little self healing. Once you have wave you can up your skull level.
2) start working on enlightened spirit to get eldritch burst with 13 more AP providing an AOE boosted by metamagic. It takes 20 ap to take wave so you get this sooner. Then when wave is available reset the tree and put your AP in Soul Eater
3) Go the cc route with 3 points in stunning blast at level 5 + 1 more ap in command followed by boosting your pact damage. Then when you have 40 AP reset your TS enhancements and go with the original 8 pt AP spend in TS and the rest in soul eater for the wave. At this point you have evard's black tentacles for aoe cc so I focus on filling out tier 5 soul eater and then go back to tainted scholar focusing on eld damage dice and cha first and then filling in cc at higher levels. This is my preference.

At level 11 I swap out false life for jump and use heal scrolls for self healing.

I just use cannith crafted leveling gear for all levels. I swap my weapons more frequently than other items.

Level 1-9:

Gloves: Radiance of Healing Amp
Ring 1: Light Lore of Sheltering
Ring 2: Persuastion False Life
Trinket: Spell Saves Wizardry
Boots: Spellsight of Strength
Belt: Dodge Deathblock
Hat: Concentration, Spell Focus Mastery
Goggles: Intelligence, Spell Penetration
Bracers: Resistance, Fortification
Armor: Fearsome Invulnerability
Necklace: Constitution Charisma
Weapon 1: Impulse of Force Lore
Weapon 2: Corrosion of Acid Lore
Hat: Intelligence Spellsight (a little boost to universal spell power)

Although at low levels I use deadly, etc. with swords and then once I have cone switch to casting.

Level 10 with heroic burnscar sash+:

Gloves: Impulse, Resistance, Insightful Impulse
Ring 1: Force Lore , False Life, Insightful Con
Ring 2: Light Lore Lore, Sheltering, Insightful PRR
Trinket: Spellsight, Spell Penetration, Insightful Corrosion
Boots: Dodge Strength, Ins Dodge
Belt: Burnscar Sash
Weapon 1: Radiance, Insightful Radiance
Weapon 2: Caustic Forum Post (Anniversary Quest Turn-in, Corrosion, Acid Lore, Wizardry, Ins Evoc Focus, Augment)
Hat: Intelligence, Spell Focus Mastery, Ins Spellsight
Necklace: Constitution, Charisma, Ins Charisma
Goggles: Conj focus, Ins Conj focus, Ins spell pen (I have also evocation, transmutation and necro versions). I use conj until higher heroic levels for the dps then switch to necro as my main goggles.
Bracers: Spell Saves, Insightful MRR, Ins fortification
Armor: Vitality, Healing Amp, Parrying
Cloak: Mysterious Cloak with master's gift and feather fall slotted

deathblock (12+) , Fortification augment slotted somewhere

For skills, UMD, Concentration and spellsight are the important skills at heroic levels. Jump can be added as well. For epic levels I prefer 11 points in search which along with int/search swap gear lets me see secret doors.

[Zretch]

What weapons do you use for leveling up ? And what skilld so you level up(like use magic device etc...)?

If you're using the chain shape or the cone shape, your weapons are only for stats as you never actually swing them. (the shapes replace your basic weapon attacks). If you're in enlightened spirit using the aura, you can actually swing a weapon. Even then, though, for this kind of build you're going to be using them mainly for stats as you won't be taking weapons feats and enhancements so the weapon swings are mostly for something to do between bursts that also apply a bit of light damage from your enhancement procs.

If you didn't pick up one of the anniversary event casting clubs, just go with a cannith crafted weapon or two that give you casting spellpower that you don't already have on your rings, etc. (Corrosion for GOO, Combustion for Fiend, Resonance for Fey & Impulse for base damage unless you're running Utterdark blast, in which case you go with Radiance). If you can't cannith craft, just look for quest rewards / drops / auction house items that give the best increase to those stats that you can equip for your level. Try to get weapons that are a spellcasting implement as well, as that gives general spellpower in addition.

[slarden]

If you're using the chain shape or the cone shape, your weapons are only for stats as you never actually swing them. (the shapes replace your basic weapon attacks). If you're in enlightened spirit using the aura, you can actually swing a weapon. Even then, though, for this kind of build you're going to be using them mainly for stats as you won't be taking weapons feats and enhancements so the weapon swings are mostly for something to do between bursts that also apply a bit of light damage from your enhancement procs.

If you didn't pick up one of the anniversary event casting clubs, just go with a cannith crafted weapon or two that give you casting spellpower that you don't already have on your rings, etc. (Corrosion for GOO, Combustion for Fiend, Resonance for Fey & Impulse for base damage unless you're running Utterdark blast, in which case you go with Radiance). If you can't cannith craft, just look for quest rewards / drops / auction house items that give the best increase to those stats that you can equip for your level. Try to get weapons that are a spellcasting implement as well, as that gives general spellpower in addition.

This is outstanding advice. The only advantage of the anniversary item is the ability to make it sentient at level 20. Beyond that you actually get the same splellpower from cannith crafting.

[slarden]

The last 2 updates brought us a small amount of stat inflation, but there haven't been any significant meta changes for warlock or casters in general other than a boost to favored soul making it a compelling DC casting option.

The party mix for high skull reaper continues to be mostly martial builds, but DC casting still has a place as long as there aren't too many in the party. This build is optimized for mid-skull reaper solo or short man since high skull opportunities exist on Sarlona but are not abundant. I have been utilizing my favored soul more for high skill runs as the mix of healing and DC casting is more versatile and the DC potential is higher. I continue to be happy with how the warlock performs across skull levels and it still my favorite class for soloing with monk being a close 2nd. Devour the soul, Evard's and unlimited free DPS with eld blast continue to be the key advantages of a Warlock DC caster.

Enhancement mix of 12 dragonborn, 43 soul eater and 25 tainted scholar still works well for the first 80 points.

The main changes since the last update I made after U37:

• Sentient weapons now hold 8 filigree instead of 7. This allows you to double dip with both Otto's and Eye of the Beholder set bonuses which stack. This reduces charisma from 4 to 2 but raises the universal DC by 2 for a net gain of 1 DC and 1 spell penetration.
• Falconry is a compelling tree option for any bonus racial ap as it has low-hanging fruit such as 6 PRR, 15 healing amp, a sprint boost and with the maximum 12 racial ap bonus an overall 5% hp bonus.
• +8 tomes were introduced to the store making it easier to obtain. This along with a point of Charisma from the Falconry tree if you have 7 racial ap allows you to increase universal DC by 1 for a total DC boost of 2 compared to U37. Previously the extra point of charisma from harper tree generated an odd point of charisma so it wasn't a compelling option unless you were missing something else.

So stat inflation of 2 DC total which isn't a game changer, but is helpful since warlock DC potential is slightly lower than most classes.

[Rastaparingsuzar]

And what about this build on Aasimar? I've seen lots of them. Any advice?

[mr420247]

If your doing racials aasimars ok but final life not really

All the aasimar goodies are locked out if you use lock auras, blasts

[slarden]

If you have Dragonborn I would go with Dragonborn over aasimar. Aasimar is really great for a wisdom build, but the only advantage it really has over dragonborn is a small amount of healing amp but you lose a DC and it's costly to take all that healing amp anyhow.

Unless it's changed or people figured out how to work around the restriction, you can't use the aasimar stance with a warlock eldritch stance. The build will really work with any race, aasimar isn't a bad second choice due to the spell pen and charisma in the tree.

[carsonfball]

Hmm... Well, it's not going to work.. Here is why: Once you leave primal, you would lose -6 spell penetration. You can surely cover that missing Spell pen with an item, but for what. Shiradi offer untwistable extra sonic and force damage. Plus irresistible palalyze.

Is the wiki incorrect? It says that the arcane sphere gives levels to warlock, not the primal sphere.

[slarden]

Is the wiki incorrect? It says that the arcane sphere gives levels to warlock, not the primal sphere.

Before Warlock was released there was a dev comment that Warlock would be in the primal sphere which was later changed and it became arcane. I started this build thread before warlock was released so some of the older comments were from before warlock went live.

[DrawingGuy]

Well, Slarden, U40 is proposing gear that could potentially boost Eldritch Blast damage. The obvious problem is it requires gear shifting, and Slaver's grinding is bantha poo, but here is a potential layout:

Goggles: Legendary Greensteel (20% Acid Crit Damage, 10% Acid Crit Damage, 5% Acid Crit Damage)
Helm: Legendary Hardened Hide
Necklace: Slavers (Sheltering 45, 185 Impulse, Heal 22, Quality DEX (or Quality Spellsight for 5 more spell power at the cost of 2 Ref/AC))
Trinket: Legendary Symbol of the Slave Lords
Cloak: Cloak of the Mountain - Insightful CHA 9, Spell Focus Mastery 7, Spell Penetration 8, 10% Magic Efficiency, Exceptional 30 Acid/15% Acid Spell Lore set bonus
Belt: Legendary Burnscar Sash
Gloves: Legendary Gauntlets of Innate Arcanum
Boots: Slavers (CON 17, Kinetic Lore 27%, Concentration 22, Quality PRR)
Bracers: Bracers of the Mountain - PRR 52, Ins PRR 25, Insightful Spell Penetration 4, Petrification Immunity, Mountain set bonus (30/15 exceptional acid)
Ring 1: Clouded Dreams - Exceptional Potency 20, Exceptional Spell Lore 10%, Insightful Spell Focus Mastery 4, Improved Nightmare Guard (DC 100), Mind Drain (-5% Max Spell Points), -4 Will Saves
Ring 2: Legendary Spinneret
Armor: Legendary Coat of the Traveler

Main Weapon: Morninglord's Sceptre
Offhand Weapon: Legendary Greensteel (Positive Healing Amp 30, Positive Healing Amp 50, Exc Char +2 (or Positive Healing Amp 70 if you care more about self healing))

Offhand swaps:
- Healer mode: Hope, The Light Within
- Boss DPS mode (also turn on Utterdark and Sun Elf stances): Dusk, the Light Descends
- If you're getting Boss aggro: Legendary Acidic Sphere
- If you need to swap on a spell absorb trinket (so you can still get set bonus): Legendary Mutilator of Minds


There are some small trade-offs: The only real losses is some saves and 5% SP, but comes with a boost to other defense and some nice guards (stoneskin proc guard, 100 DC Nightmare guard, and petrification immunity), which ultimately may come out ahead.

Unfortunately if you want to give up gloves for a double LGS HP setup, it comes with a 29 MRR loss (giving up 45 sheltering for 17 CHA and slotting a 16 augment), so that additional HP would have to compete against getting hit harder by spells. You can always wear Unconscious Range LGS over 35% crit goggles if extra survival is needed. The Masque gives up some range, but comes with another CC immunity type, aoe paralyze clicky, and two augment slots.

Definitely going to need to get off my Warlock's Fey butt and switch to GOO with this.

[slarden]

Well, Slarden, U40 is proposing gear that could potentially boost Eldritch Blast damage. The obvious problem is it requires gear shifting, and Slaver's grinding is bantha poo, but here is a potential layout:

Goggles: Legendary Greensteel (20% Acid Crit Damage, 10% Acid Crit Damage, 5% Acid Crit Damage)
Helm: Legendary Hardened Hide
Necklace: Slavers (Sheltering 45, Radiance Lore 27% (or Resists 14 or 185 Impulse), Heal 22, Quality Spellsight (or Qual DEX or Qual Fortification))
Trinket: Legendary Symbol of the Slave Lords
Cloak: Cloak of the Mountain - Insightful CHA 9, Spell Focus Mastery 7, Spell Penetration 8, Spellcast on the Run feat, Exceptional 30 Acid/15% Acid Spell Lore set bonus
Belt: Legendary Burnscar Sash
Gloves: Legendary Gauntlets of Innate Arcanum
Boots: Slavers (CON 17, Kinetic Lore 27%, Concentration 22, Quality PRR)
Bracers: Bracers of the Mountain - PRR 52, Ins PRR 25, Insightful Spell Penetration 4, Petrification Immunity, Mountain set bonus (30/15 exceptional acid)
Ring 1: Clouded Dreams - Exceptional Potency 20, Exceptional Spell Lore 10%, Insightful Spell Focus Mastery 4, Improved Nightmare Guard (DC 100), Mind Drain (-5% Max Spell Points), -4 Will Saves
Ring 2: Legendary Spinneret
Armor: Legendary Coat of the Traveler

Main Weapon: Morninglord's Sceptre
Offhand Weapon: Legendary Greensteel (Positive Healing Amp 30, Positive Healing Amp 50, Exc Char +2 (or Positive Healing Amp 70 if you care more about self healing))

DPS Offhand: Echo of the Tome of Strahd - This comes with significant survival trade-offs as you'll be losing 1k temp HP procs, heal amp, on top of the 1 CHA... but if you are in a situation where you don't need the hamp and can afford a 1 CHA loss, this equates to more DPS. Golden Orb of Death also works, though doesn't come with the Spellcraft gains from INT. Though if I were to pick one as a holdover for a LGS item, I would go with the Golden Orb of Death.

There are some small trade-offs: 5% less SP and no 10% efficiency making your belt a bit tighter and some lower saves losing a real DEX item and 14 saves. But for that you'll gain more spell power across the board, more spell crit chance, some nice immunities and procs, and higher PRR and fortification.

Definitely going to need to get off my Warlock's Fey butt and switch to GOO with this.

Thanks for sharing! This is a great gear set you put together - I haven't had a chance to look over the new gear yet but your post has me excited.

[DrawingGuy]

My gear list should work perfectly. Only Cloak of The Mountain got a slight change from having Spellcasr on the Run to 10% magic efficiency. While the former I considered more fun, jump casting is all it takes anyways for full speed casting while running/kiting, so ultimately a buff.

[aumerle]

Howdy all,

Been following this build somewhat as I level up a character and it has been great, really appreciate all of the detail.

I do have a quick question.

Under the spell pen breakdown it says:

Item: Enhancement Bonus: 8
Item: Insightful Bonus: 4

However I don't see which items are giving these spell pen bonuses. Want to make sure I'm not messing up and confused about which items are best. I'd appreciate it if anyone could point out where those spell pen bonuses are coming from. Thanks

Edit: Nevermind - just figured it out, Nightmother's Scepter (I'm currently using the other one). Once again, great build thanks for posting this!

[DrawingGuy]

Howdy all,

Been following this build somewhat as I level up a character and it has been great, really appreciate all of the detail.

I do have a quick question.

Under the spell pen breakdown it says:

Item: Enhancement Bonus: 8
Item: Insightful Bonus: 4

However I don't see which items are giving these spell pen bonuses. Want to make sure I'm not messing up and confused about which items are best. I'd appreciate it if anyone could point out where those spell pen bonuses are coming from. Thanks

They're part of Nightmother's Scepter: http://ddowiki.com/page/Item:Nightmother%27s_Sceptre

That item there really changed the face of DC casting as it put all of the most important DC casting abilities for every singe school in a single one handed item, and at near-perfect values. My recently proposed gear setup moves those abilities to other gear pieces, but it is taking 3 pieces of equipment to cover that single item. Essentially, unless you are covering it with other gear piece like I am, every DC caster should be using the Nightmother's Scepter. It is also super easy to get, since if you don't get lucky enough to get it as a drop, you can simply buy it form the vendor in Blue Water Inn.

That said, my gear setup does come with a second advantage: You can flip on a Nocturne for a big Ruin/GRuin when needed without DC loss (assuming you also put Filigrees on the staff). Though I don't think the losses to Pact/Consume/Stricken would be outweighed by the Blast/Pulse/Ruin DPS, so wouldn't use the staff for more

Thinking about ways to boost DPS further, though, my original suggestion of a Strahd/Golden offhand is actually not the best idea. I would look to carry the following off hands:

- For when you need to be a party healer (between Cocoon, Wrath, and mass moderate, you make a solid off-healer): Hope, The Light Within

- For boss DPS mode (still swap to LGS for 1k HP procs and when you need heals - I would also swap to Utterdark and Sun Elf stances unless the boss has an Evil resistance): Dusk, the Light Descends

- If you're getting Boss aggro: Legendary Acidic Sphere

- If you need to swap on a spell absorb trinket (so you can still get set bonus): Legendary Mutilator of Minds


In lower Reapers, I'd consider Dusk to be your main off-hand as the DPS will matter more on trash and you can afford the 1-CHA and heal amp loss.

With that, it solidifies my Slavers options, so updating my earlier post so if people follow it, there will be no confusion.

[AdamPM]

Just wondering what you do for gear in the start of epics. Keep wearing RL gear? Switch to something more like your crafted set for 10-20? Just hit 20 and it looks like I can't really craft any improvements until around 22/23 when the next power level kicks in for spell schools/stat enhancements. I looked at the stuff that was dropping in ES and the RL stuff still looked better.

Currently using pretty much all RL gear with a couple crafted items.