Pure Casting Warlock DC Eld Blast Build

[slarden]

This is the total impact on my warlock - currently running in magister but swapping to draconic for U51.

Single Target DPS - 15 second rotation
- Before U51: 68,645.16
- With U51 Changes: 153,459.47
- Math: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets...it?usp=sharing

*** This requires a 10 second-build up of arcane pulse and the new draconic dot to achieve these #s.

AOE DPS - 30 second rotation
- Before U51: 70,058.92
- After U51: 61,361.36
- Math: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets...it?usp=sharing

AOE DPS - 15 second rotation
- Before U51: 51,172.65
- After U51: 30,680.68
- Math: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets...it?usp=sharing

Change to DC (assuming I usually cast on enemies before damage so the removal epic resilience is giving me the full benefit)

Necromancy
- 6 Magister Cores
- 3 Magister Necromancy Specialist
- 3 Magister Master of Necromancy
- 3 Magister Intelligence + Twist of Arcane Hymn from Fatesinger

+3 New Draconic Cores
+3 Draconic Tier 5
+3 Destiny 1 - Tier 3
+6 Effective DC bonus from removal of epic resilience

Net Effect: 0

Enchantment or Illusion (TBD)
- 6 Magister Cores
- 3 Magister Intelligence + Twist of Arcane Hymn from Fatesinger

+3 New Draconic Cores
+3 Draconic Tier 5
+3 Destiny 2 - Tier 3
+6 Effective DC bonus from removal of epic resilience

Net Effect: +6

Evocation
- 6 Magister Cores
- 3 Magister Intelligence + Twist of Arcane Hymn from Fatesinger

+3 New Draconic Cores
+3 Draconic Tier 5
+3 Destiny 3 - Tier 3
+6 Effective DC bonus from removal of epic resilience

Net Effect: +6

Other Schools
- 6 Magister Cores
- 3 Magister Intelligence + Twist of Arcane Hymn from Fatesinger

+3 New Draconic Cores
+3 Draconic Tier 5
+6 Effective DC bonus from removal of epic resilience

Net Effect: +3

Overall Assessment

This will change my playstyle and build decisions as warlock single-target dps is getting a massive boost, but my aoe is taking a significant hit.

The thing I will miss most is the 1-2 punch of arcane tempest + energy burst which is not replaceable due to the epic strike and mantle restrictions with the new epic destiny system. So even if Arcane Tempest exists in another tree it will likely lock out dragon breath as they will be on the same timer.

In general the epic strike and mantle restrictions make dipping into another casting tree less appealing as the best things can't be used.

One way I can make up for the loss of aoe is by relying more on procs with my aoe rotation (tentacles, ice storm, sleet storm). Dripping with magma from legendary red dragonscale armor or docent is the most obvious candidate. In general dripping with magma will continue to push builds toward fire as the dps impact is so significant and it seems broken to me (too good to be working as intended, but I'll take it). Alchemical <element> attunement can also help boost aoe with procs.

I generally dislike playing builds that rely on procs (I played Shiradi for several years) because the #s scrolling take so long to catch up with actual in-game results.

I look forward to the next 3 caster trees and hope there is more low-hanging fruit than I see in the other caster trees.

Epic Feats and Qualifications on Numbers

My current epic destiny feats are epic pact dice, mass frog and arcane pulse. With mass frog going away I will likely take epic force spellpower or epic cold spellpower which boost some of my post-U51 numbers. I am undecided on this so I haven't factored this into the spreadsheet yet. It is likely that dropping epic pact dice will make sense to take both cold and force epic spellpower.

Scion is another problem area for warlocks with these changes since most scions have only one spellpower type boosted with the exception of feywild which boosts both sonic and force and is great for fey builds. I am currently using the shadowfell scion for necro DC and am undecided on whether to switch to feywild for more of a blasting / cc focus. My aoe and single-target dps numbers will improve slightly if I make this change at the cost of 2 necro dc.

[flotterjohnny]

Hi Slarden, ty, I will try a change at lvl 12 to ES, and maybe Ill change back.

Greetz FJ

Going to ES at 12 is a trap imho (and I guess thats the reason u c nobody in ES anymore heroiclvln), survivability a bit better maybe, but due to DPS loss also this is no argument. Changed back to SE/TS

Greetz!

[slarden]

In general U51 was a big boost for casters. I think sorc and wizard did relatively better than warlock, but warlock gains were significant.

As an example on my bladeforged SE/TS DC build, my single-target dps more than doubled compared to pre-U51: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets...it?usp=sharing

This was the single biggest weakness of soloing with warlock by a large margin. With lgs debuffs, warlock debuffs and warlock vulnerability it brings dps the numbers can be boosted significantly but will never match a properly built melee.

ES/TS blasting builds made significant gains.

My initial thoughts/testing indicate that Draconic as a main tree is going to be best with exalted angel and primal avatar as secondary trees for mass cure moderate and cocoon.

In addition, you can go more tanky with draconic, exalted angel, unyielding sentinel or draconic, unyielding sentinel, primal avatar.

Even with the loss of empyrean magic fire still makes alot of sense since you get crit chance boost and spellpower, plus immunity stripping with tiefling. I would almost certainly take arcane tempest rather than wail of the banshee on the blasting build. Ruin, Greater Ruin and Arcane pulse also make sense and synergizes well with arcane tempest and tentacles which use force.

Cold is also quite good as absolute zero is arguably the best pact ability and niac's biting cold is boosted by draconic. I will update the builds, but I have alot of testing to do first and I want to wait a few weeks until some of the bugs are fixed and possibly a few numbers adjusted. On my bladeforged carceri warlock I am currently testing out draconic main, magus, pa and it's working really well an synergistic.

Fey pact has synergies with scion of the feywild and fatesinger sonic vulnerability and ironically highest dc potential, but I am just not seeing the dps there unless you go melee as an arcane warrior. The turn tide party buff is quite a nice side benefit. It will take some testing and finesse to make fey pact with fatesinger work, but the potential is definitely there.

Even on my bladeforged I am looking at ES/TS instead of SE/TS as an option since blasting is so much better and the aura and vortex compliment each other so well.

On a side note for folks that solo, you should definitely take advantage of the free coupon code to make a buffing bard sidekick. If you can throw a small amount of money at the account it will save you from needing to grind points to buy xpacs.

[erethizon]

In general U51 was a big boost for casters. I think sorc and wizard did relatively better than warlock, but warlock gains were significant.

As an example on my bladeforged SE/TS DC build, my single-target dps more than doubled compared to pre-U51: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets...it?usp=sharing

This was the single biggest weakness of soloing with warlock by a large margin. With lgs debuffs, warlock debuffs and warlock vulnerability it brings dps the numbers can be boosted significantly but will never match a properly built melee.

ES/TS blasting builds made significant gains.

My initial thoughts/testing indicate that Draconic as a main tree is going to be best with exalted angel and primal avatar as secondary trees for mass cure moderate and cocoon.

In addition, you can go more tanky with draconic, exalted angel, unyielding sentinel or draconic, unyielding sentinel, primal avatar.

Even with the loss of empyrean magic fire still makes alot of sense since you get crit chance boost and spellpower, plus immunity stripping with tiefling. I would almost certainly take arcane tempest rather than wail of the banshee on the blasting build. Ruin, Greater Ruin and Arcane pulse also make sense and synergizes well with arcane tempest and tentacles which use force.

Cold is also quite good as absolute zero is arguably the best pact ability and niac's biting cold is boosted by draconic. I will update the builds, but I have alot of testing to do first and I want to wait a few weeks until some of the bugs are fixed and possibly a few numbers adjusted. On my bladeforged carceri warlock I am currently testing out draconic main, magus, pa and it's working really well an synergistic.

Fey pact has synergies with scion of the feywild and fatesinger sonic vulnerability and ironically highest dc potential, but I am just not seeing the dps there unless you go melee as an arcane warrior. The turn tide party buff is quite a nice side benefit. It will take some testing and finesse to make fey pact with fatesinger work, but the potential is definitely there.

Even on my bladeforged I am looking at ES/TS instead of SE/TS as an option since blasting is so much better and the aura and vortex compliment each other so well.

On a side note for folks that solo, you should definitely take advantage of the free coupon code to make a buffing bard sidekick. If you can throw a small amount of money at the account it will save you from needing to grind points to buy xpacs.

I appreciate your research and am interested in seeing what you find as you test more. Some people are saying Shiradi is the way to go, but as a Force/Acid warlock I get less bonus from the light/cold procs that come with that destiny. Still, 30% chance for every monster you hit with your basic attack does sound like it could do more than one hit of one opponent every 5 seconds.

[slarden]

I appreciate your research and am interested in seeing what you find as you test more. Some people are saying Shiradi is the way to go, but as a Force/Acid warlock I get less bonus from the light/cold procs that come with that destiny. Still, 30% chance for every monster you hit with your basic attack does sound like it could do more than one hit of one opponent every 5 seconds.

I tested with stay frosty/prism since I am cold based and I had better dungeon clearing ability with T5 Draconic/T4 magus and T5 Magus/T4 draconic vs. shiradi - although magus is only really great for a cold or negative based warlock.

At the moment I think my best setup is T5 Magus/T4 draconic because time stop is so good, but T5 draconic/T4 magus is also really great.

With numbers flying all over the place it's hard to verify things, but it appeared my eldritch blast was only giving one chance for each to proc - presumably due to the .1 second cooldown. So this would mean every blast has a 49% chance for no proc, 42% chance for 1 proc and 9% chance for 2 procs. With meteor swarm and chain missles I was getting multiple procs on my sorc so those spells seem less impacted by the .1 second cooldown.

Draconic proc is 100% every 5 seconds and ticking 4 times total and it's your best element.

I can't find a really great way to test the actual damage and proc rates on dots, etc. so I just go by dungeon clearing time. I clear dungeons slower with shiradi compared to draconic mantle, but part of that is the opportunity cost of losing on magus abilities by putting points into Shiradi.

It could be there is a way to better exploit shiradi on a warlock than I am doing.

[Ragnarnessaja]

Slarden, love the thread. I just finished reading the Brimstone Angels novel series by Erin Evans based in the Forgotten REalms universe and I really want to play your Tiefling Warlock build.

I can't see what skills I should use. I'm sure an experienced player would figure it out, but I'm EXTREMELY rusty. I'm TRing my main into this build. Can you tell me what skills I need to pick at creation and focus on while leveling? Much appreciated sir.

I haven't played in many years. I think the last expansion I got was Shadowfell Conspiracy? Can you tell me what I'd need to buy to play this at max efficiency? Thanks bud.

EDIT: Someone said a lot of the gear is from Sharn and Feywild expansion, so I gues I'll have to save for those. At least they're max level and I wont need them at the beginning.

EDIT2: Slarden reached out and said he's not playing the game any longer, so if anyone sees this and has any idea what skills (You know, UMD, Search, those things) a Warlock should use, feel free to PM me.

EDIT3: He got back to me. If anyone else wants the list, here it is.

UMD (although 1 rank is sufficient at 30) but max ranks is really good while leveling
Spellcraft
Concentration (useful for scrolls while leveling and one quest)
Diplomacy (max ranks and dip items make one of the feywild quests much easier)
Bluff (useful in a few places)
Search (useful for finding secret doors with an int item)
1 rank of tumble
1 rank of perform (skill check in what goes up)

[slarden]

I am not sure if I will be updating the build moving forward, but I wanted to at least share a few thoughts from the latest update. This is based on the release note information vs. actual testing and as we know sometimes actual in-game experience doesn't match the release notes.

At end-game the net impact on total warlock boss-damage rotation including epic destiny spells and abilities is about 13%. This assumes you are going tier 4 in tainted scholar and using enervating shadow form against bosses for the 150% scaling. At lower levels warlock gains more dps as a percentage as epic spells and abilities are so impactful at end game.

Chain shape is likely a better shape than cone vs. mobs if both shapes scale to 100% damage as the release bulletin indicates. Chain shape allows you to bend around corners and offers quite a bit of unique safety vs. cone. I used chain shape situationally even when scaling was 95% vs the 130% of cone. With salt LGS chain will impact a much larger group of mobs, but on the other hand you are likely to get more aggro when grouping with chain - so use it wisely.

On the surface the archtype looks a bit stronger for a pure warlock vs traditional ES warlock at end game, although shining through is a tough ability to lose, but generally not essential. Spell resistance equal to charisma is a very unique and strong ability. You will still want to be a tiefling vs. drow, but there are other ways to boost sr if needed. Knock-down immunity is attainable from unyielding sentinel if you use a shield or from a swap weapon with the right filigree. A huge benefit is the double pact damage against feared enemies. Scare is a level 2 aoe fear spell that goes against a will save and level 2 spells for a warlock are lacking so it's easy to fit scare in.

I am going to test out various builds once I hit 30 but I believe Soul Eater primary with heavy tainted scholar is still the way to go for leveling to 20. I've always liked ES for leveling from 21-30, although the advantage isn't as big now that epic mobs have been rescaled and don't hit quite as hard relatively. At end game a soul eater build will be strong in a balanced group R10 scenario, although in power groups R10s have become a zerg fest. I am uncertain whether acolyte of the skin vs. enlightened spirit balanced builds are better for soloing. It likely depends on the person and how much temp hp is relied on for healing. Since I use a buffing bard companion which gives me healing over time I don't find it as useful as I once did. Max dps is still the old school tier 5 soul eater tainted scholar capstone build, but R10 groups don't really need the tiny amount of extra dps and short-manning or soloing challenging content is easier with ES or acolyte of the skin. Optimized warlock single-target dps at max levels is too low to be useful in most raids to fill a dps slot, but the SE build with heavy instakill is situationally really good in certain raids, even better now that the level 12 warlock abilities allegedly use real DC totals now.

So I think in the overall pecking order, things don't change much for pure warlock with U58. They are really good at soloing in general and have a nice niche short-manning R10s. Anything works in group R10s presently so they are fine there with any build you use.

The archtype is super strong for multi-classed characters. The sweet spot is probably 12 levels of warlock so you can take both epic feats and it only requires taking the one level 18 warlock dice feat (probably at level 18). If you look at multi-class options there are many. Without acoltye of the skin multi-classing is a tough proposition because you lose dps and the capstone with acoltye of the skin you basically just lose the nice capstone, which is still a loss but multi-classing opens up some really great builds.

One that I will highlight is 12 warlock, 6 fighter and 2 wizard for exceptional ac bonus . Even with the changes warlock single-target dps is way behind a melee. However, sword and board dps is terrible - beyond hopeless at the moment. An acolyte of the skin multiclass tank will be significantly better than existing 20 warlock tanks and will be better at dungeon clearing than your traditional paladin or fighter tanks which makes it more solo-friendly than a traditional tank. This build should be able to easily tank R10s in a group with tier 5 unyielding sentinel and will be able to solo mid and even many higher skulls with a companion buffing bard dual box at the entrance. For mid skulls you can likely go draconic tier 5 for better dps against bosses or unyielding sentinel tier 5 if you are ok just plodding through a dungeon slowly but safely.

So overall I think warlock tank got a large boost by being able to multiclass without losing dps. A traditional tank is still probably ideal for raids and even R10s as spell use isn't as good for maintaining threat, but if dps has a proper amount of threat reduction it's fine for R10s. I view a acolyte of the skin multi-classed warlock tank as a significant upgrade over pure warlock tank or prior multi-class warlock tanks, but I have not yet verified that actual game experience matches the changes on paper.

I am going to tr my r10 tank to a warlock multiclass tank and my R10 sorc to a pure 20 warlock see how they do leveling and at cap as my first project. I will be using a companion dual box buffing bard parked at the start of the dungeon for buffs and healing over time which could distort performance compared to soloing without it.

Anyhow it should be fun - so much potential!

[Michele]

I usually get past lives using 9 or 10 warlock levels, so I love the opportunity of getting eldritch blast / pact dices by using feats.

[Maelodic]

I am going to tr my r10 tank to a warlock multiclass tank and my R10 sorc to a pure 20 warlock see how they do leveling and at cap as my first project. I will be using a companion dual box buffing bard parked at the start of the dungeon for buffs and healing over time which could distort performance compared to soloing without it.

Anyhow it should be fun - so much potential!

I'm interested in how these builds are working out, how are they going?

[slarden]

I'm interested in how these builds are working out, how are they going?

I just got to cap, so the jury is still out on the builds. It did great while leveling - I really like chain shape as my primary shape over cone and aura. It makes the build more fun to play as it provides a much more flexible playstyle.

The tanks #s at cap are not as good as my paladin tank which I fully expected. Before any buffs in reaper mode with 110 reaper pts with sentinel mantle this character has:

Hp: 5534
AC: 361
Saves: 86-101
PRR: 329
MRR: 190
Fort: 259%

I am currently setting my reaper pts to prr but will likely switch that to MRR depending on how playtesting goes. I should be able to make a second legendary swap gem of many facets with insightful fort to get that up a bit for situations where I need it, but I want to see how it goes with the lower fort.

I swap between sentinel and draconic mantles depending on what I need more. I maxed out my con instead cha as the primary focus is tank, but cc combo of greater color spray, tentacles, burst of glacial wrath seems to work reasonably well - not as well on reapers as my main warlock which is to be expected. My gear isn't yet optimized so I have some room for improvement.

I think this is good enough to tank R10s, but I haven't yet had a chance to test it out.

The pure caster will be running R10s today so I'll see how that goes. It's a more straight-forward build so I am very confident it will work fine in R10s. I just have to use chain properly so I don't get too much aggro. If your schedule permits, it would be great to see you for r10s soon!

[slarden]

I'm interested in how these builds are working out, how are they going?

A quick update from yesterday - my first day running the build at cap. I changed course and focused on the warlock tank since I was less certain of how it work and it would alot more tweaking for end-game. I started off soloing 2 R7 quests to get a feel for survivability and dps at cap. Overall survivability was really good. DPS was a bit slower than I expected, but much better with draconic mantle instead of sentinel mantle. I will probably only use sentinel mantle when I need the absorb to compensate for my lower MRR. The extra hp aren't that impactful.

In R10s we didn't have anyone else with cc so not having mass hold, hold, salt and with an overall lower dc compared to my pure warlock was noticeable, although we great in all quests except one which was a bit rough. Salt would have been helpful, but I didn't assemble a SALT weapon. I will make one and use it when I am not the main tank. Rotating between greater color spray, tentacles and burst of glacial wrath worked reasonably well. My boss dps was much lower without tier 5 draconic. Taking down bosses solo on R7 took a bit long compared to what I am used to and on R10s with the lower ruin/greater ruin I don't contribute as much to taking down dooms and fear reapers fast. Overall I think R5-R6 is a better solo level for the the build although R7 was definitely do-able. With my pure caster I generally stick with R4 since it's so much faster.

I will continue to tweak and see if I can get a better result, although overall I am happy with how it did - I just wouldn't use as the sole caster build without at leasting have a salt swap weapon.

[Maelodic]

I will continue to tweak and see if I can get a better result, although overall I am happy with how it did - I just wouldn't use as the sole caster build without at leasting have a salt swap weapon.

thanks for the update, great info.

[slarden]

I built and played both a Pure 20 Warlock Acolyte of the skin and multiclass 12 Warlock, 6 Fighter, 2 Wizard. Both did well, but I am going to reroll (lesser) or TR the tank into 16 warlock, 3 fighter, 1 wizard for comparison purposes before commenting on that build as I want to see how the build does with more spells, T5 acolyte of the skin and less in the tank tree. So this analysis will be solely the Pure 20 warlock Acolyte of the skin.

I am going to start out with just the leveling experience from 1 to cap.

Heroic Leveling

I started out with maximize/empower with consume/stricken as usual. Those spells are just very strong at low levels. Instead of working up to cone I then immediately started leveling up tainted scholar for chain rather than cone. In my initial post on U58 I highlighted the potential of chain vs. cone for aoe and enervating shadow for boss dps. Neither disappointed. Overall I felt much stronger with chain than cone throughout the entire leveling experience. If you are in a high R static group chain can be problematic due to aggro pulling, but I solo'd and it made the low levels of warlock much better and the higher levels better as well. I solo'd low level content R1 and then switched to R4 at level 5. I ran it 2 levels over content so I could run as few quests as possible rather than going for max favor.

The biggest loser with the warlock changes is enlightened spirit because they lose some abilities with aura off so there is a downside to using chain which is much better than aura/ ES bursts.

Overall your dps is a bit higher leveling vs. standard warlock because the dice are more front-loaded. For example by level 18 you have your full dice.

I previously always leveled up SE/TS regardless of final build due to how strong it is for heroic leveling. This life I spec'd out of soul eater around level 10 (in all honesty I should have done this sooner) and went fully into acolyte of the skin and tainted scholar with feydark illusionist for greater color spray.

From a strictly heroic perspective acolyte of the skin is a much better leveling tree than soul eater with chain as the main shape. I mean I did miss the second finger of death a bit, but didn't really miss wave, consume or stricken. However, the ability to boost dps on feared enemies with alot of fearing happening automatically with AoS SLAs (and I also used a fearsome cannith crafted armor for good measure) you get a damage boost there and stacks with helplessness which is most easly generated with feydark illusionist. Once you hit 12 the fiendish symbiosis is very strong and is immediately at 50 seconds out of 3 minutes. The stacking of drink the fear, fiendish symbiosis and helplessness damage makes clearing mobs better than soul eater. For heroic levels I used AoS beam against bosses for the 120% scaling. Once I got to 20 I swapped out beam and instead use tainted scholar enervating shadow for bosses (when not in beast mode with fiendish symbiosis). I used fiendish symbiosis and killed the boss before I was done almost every quest for heroic leveling so beam was rarely used.

Even if you don't like warlock, getting these past lifes is very easy and in my opinion it's the strongest tree for heroic leveling. Comparing to other caster archtype = it's not as strong as strormsinger or blight caster for heroic leveling, but it's still very strong.

I am going to report on epic leveling separately because there is alot to unpack there with feats and destiny choices. I have everything ready, but will most likely post it tomorrow due to a busy schedule tonight.

This was mostly just alot of subjective thoughts on the leveling process. The next updates will be more analytical with math support.

[slarden]

FEATS

There are too many good epic feats for warlocks with only 4 slots. I think feat selection will largely depend on what you are building for.

I opted for epic eldritch blast, wellspring of power, ruin and greater ruin. This is for a warlock that primarily focuses on soloing, shortmanning and R10s. The reason is that clearing mobs is relatively easy, but I want better single-target damage for bosses, doom reapers and any time I need to do damage fast. The duration and cooldown for Wellspring of Power is the same as Fiendish Symbiosis which makes it too good to pass up.

Alternative feats would be burst of glacial wrath which is effective cc that goes against a fortitude save, Intensify for 75 more spellpower with spells that support metamagic and embolden to boost DC by 2. For a build that primarily focuses on cc and aoe for R10s where dps contribution isn't critical I would probably take burst of glacial wrath and either embolden or intensify. While I am a big fan of burst of glacial wrath, I find warlock has enough cc without it.

For single-target damage any alternative to ruin/greater ruin results in a big dps loss. The following spreadsheet shows a typical single-target rotation for acoltye of the skin with and without greater ruin.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets...it?usp=sharing

Spellpower and damage calculations are shown.

With Ruin/Greater Ruin instead of intensify and another feat, single-target damage is over 30% higher. Even though most of the time spent in a 15-second rotation most of the damage comes from ruin, greater ruin, energy burst and the draconic proc.

For Legendary Feat I took Scion of the Plane of Fire which is really the only one that make sense for Acolyte of the Skin in Draconic Incarnation. For Destiny feats Epic Pact Dice and Epic Spellpower Fire are the only two must-haves. I added Arcane Pulse and Epic Spellpower Force for my other 2 feats, although Legendary Toughness is certainly compelling as it ends up being 130 hp with 4-piece winter + Acolyte capstone.

EPIC DESTINY

I have 72 destiny points on this character. I think I am only missing the isle of dread tome which I may or may not buy in the future. After significant testing I opted for Draconic Tier 5, Exalted Angel Tier 4 and Primal Avatar Tier 2 with 40, 24 and 8 points spent respectively.

At least from testing the most compelling reason to go Tier 5 in Exalted Angel is for the Holy Fireball which does light and fire damage, synergizing well with Acolyte of the skin. Using Holy Fireball effectively replaces one blast with chain and does considerably more damage. So from an AOE perspective this will give you your best burst dps setup as you can still grab energy burst from tier 2. I didn't find it to be super impactful during testing. It does considerably less damage over time than the tier 4 vortex energy burst vortex shape. The light portion is considerably less than the fire portion due to lower crit chance and lower spellpower.

Still for someone that isn't tiefling and can't strip fire immunity, this is probably a solid choice to diversify damage. However, from a single-target dps perspective you end up way lower with exalted angel due to the loss of ruin intensified and no amount of spec optimization can change that. For example an Acolyte of the Skin with Draconic Tier 5 does nearly 25% more single-target dps than a SE Tier 5 / TS Capstone Warlock in Exalted Angel even though The SE/TS setup gives 8% higher crit chance and 30% more crit damage (calcs shown in spreadsheet link). It is just too small to make up for the loss of ruin damage from Tier 5 draconic. In addition, from an AOE perspective, although you gain some burst dps, your sustained dps will be lower unless you take tier 4 Vortex.

So I think Exalted Angel could make sense for a non-tiefling that wants some diversification of damage type and for max burst AOE DPS with Energy Burst - Gaping Maw and Holy Fireball. In general I think Draconic Tier 5 is the better option for Acolyte of the Skin. The mantle with inevitable does more damage than the Exalted Angel mantle although the healing from Holy Presence is beneficial.

[Michele]

can you show me some solo r8/r10 videos with this build?

[slarden]

can you show me some solo r8/r10 videos with this build?

At the moment I am not making any videos and don't have any plans to. If you are on Sarlona and would like to join me for R10s please message me.

As a general rule I only solo R8+ for challenge and usually then I cherry pick quests a little bit to avoid encounters where I might end up with 3 dooms, 2 vengeance, some other reapers and continually respawning mobs. I wouldn't even attempt to solo Slavers III on R10, that one was tough with a full group.

I typically run R10s (outside a few challenge/test cases) with at least one other person and more often a full party.

Even with over 250 PRR, 230 MRR and around 3400 hp in reaper mode there are quite a few things that will one shot me or effectively one shot me with a single attack sequence on R10.

I haven't posted any details about the tanky multiclass acolyte of the skin build, but that build would have better defenses to solo high Rs but that build needs a few tweaks first. That build has a 400 ac so the dooms (and martial enemies in general) miss me almost every time on R10, but I need buff up dps and mrr a bit which is why I haven't posted it.

[Michele]

I see that you use Eldritch Wave, but when I tested it I didn't see the same range of cone spells like dragon breath or greater shout or tsunami.

I had trouble hitting mobs with Eldritch Wave: do you experience the same issue?

[slarden]

I see that you use Eldritch Wave, but when I tested it I didn't see the same range of cone spells like dragon breath or greater shout or tsunami.

I had trouble hitting mobs with Eldritch Wave: do you experience the same issue?

I previously used wave with SE and yes it is buggy, but I didn't have any problems with targeting as long as I jump-casted on the wave. In general while wave is triple damage, due to time loss from animations it's more like a net of 2 eldritch blasts. It's good, but not essential.

[Michele]

I previously used wave with SE and yes it is buggy, but I didn't have any problems with targeting as long as I jump-casted on the wave. In general while wave is triple damage, due to time loss from animations it's more like a net of 2 eldritch blasts. It's good, but not essential.

thank you for tour feedback.
I tested it again yesterday, I was told that I had to stay still when cast and not after using any eldritch blasts: eldritch wave hits 3 times in the log but I didn't test if it bugs when immediately after I use eldritch blast