Pure Casting Warlock DC Eld Blast Build

[slarden]

The following builds reflect U48 gearing options.

Dragonborn Max DC SE/TS Build for 10 Skull

Bladeforged Solo Mid-Skull SE/TS Build

Tiefling Solo Mid-Skull Enlightened Spirit Build

I really like the bladeforged build the best although it requires a +1 lesser heart to remove the paladin level. It's the most versatile build if you want to solo mid-skulls sometimes and join R10 other times. It's a very balanced build with a mix of great self-healing, solid defenses, offense and dc spellcasting. I use the bladeforged build the most and run it on my 3rd main character Randlen.

Quick Play Notes (Solo Builds)

I tend to draw mobs back to a "kill zone" picking off the most dangerous enemies with instakill then cc'ing the rest with Evard's using aoe on the mobs to the extent possible. In large mobs that aren't grouped together I focus on picking off the most dangerous enemies first and then use aoe to the extent possible. Between Devour, Finger x2 and Ruin/Greater Ruin you can deal with the most dangerous mobs in mid reaper. Devour is good against high fort mobs and Finger is good against most high will and high reflex mobs. Mass Frog is a specialty spell that only really works on some undead and constructs which you find through trial and error.

In R5 and R6 vengeance and despair reapers are introduced. Both can be cc'd and while despair reaper is alive tentacles is your best cc against the rest of the mobs as it doesn't appear to buff stats that matter for that spell. The wrong combination of reapers at the wrong time make R5 and R6 more challenging to solo, but with practice it will get easier. I sometimes solo a quest on R5 and R6 and never encounter either reaper. Greater ruin and ruin are your friends against these reapers. It's one of the things I save my sp for. I think this is common knowledge but you need to kill the vengeance reapers last if you aren't familiar with those. Despair reapers buff enemy saves.

In R7+ doom reapers are introduced. Since they are red named it's a much tougher challenge to solo. My tactic is cc mobs and run back as far as I can so I can fight the doom solo, but all the mechanics of doom reapers make this hard - still it's the best chance you have. Doom reapers are well designed to make soloing hard R7+. Still, you can get through a quest on R7+ without encountering a doom reaper, but I'll generally only try and solo R7+ on the older level 30+ quests and more typically I'll only run R7 in a group.

I will say this. Once you've pushed yourself to run R7+ solo and had a mixture of success and failure you will find running R10 in a group much less intimidating and much easier (esp when full with all the right roles). I would not step in on R7 solo until you've found R5-R6 to easy for a given quest.

Swap to salt lgs in the off-hand if you need to slow enemies down. I don't generally need to do this as cc is good with the build, but it's an option and works great combined with ice storm and sleet storm.

Example Spell Rotations (with full metamagic unless stated otherwise)
Typical Mobs (Orcs / Kobolds in Slaver's Chain)
- Evard's (64 sp)
- Greater Color Spray (4sp)
- Divine Wrath(40sp)
- Energy Burst (20 sp)
- Eldritch Wave (0 sp)
- Cone x2 or 3 (0sp)
- Devour the Soul (0sp)
- Finger SLA (40sp)
- Finger Spell (48 sp)
- Hurl Through Hell (20 sp)

High Fort High HP Mobs (Ogres in Slaver's Chain)
- Evard's (64 sp)
- Greater Color Spray (4sp)
- Mass Hold Monster (56 sp)
- Arcane Tempest (30sp)
- Energy Burst (20 sp)
- Eldritch Wave (0 sp)
- Cone x2 or 3 (0sp)
- Devour the Soul on most dangerous high fort mob (0sp)
- Finger SLA on most dangerous remaining caster/cleric/archer (40sp)
- Finger Spell on most dangerous remaining caster/cleric/archer (48 sp)
- Hurl through hell on the next most dangerous high fort mob (20sp)
- Eldritch Wave/Cone/Black Dragon Breath as needed (0sp)

Total Spell Point Cost: <300sp or Net 0sp with 1 Lost Soul

Boss Damage
- 4 unmeta'd arcane pulse (8 * 4 = 32sp)
- Greater Ruin fully meta'd (160 sp)
- Ruin fully meta'd (100 sp)
- Arcane pulse fully meta'd (48 24 sp)

For boss damage I primarily use eld blast and switch to a swap weapon (ash or ooze) in my offhand. The 3 debuffs that are applied are the LGS (depending on weapon), strickened form (soul eater) and Taint the Aura (soul eater). For Calceri I use Ooze as it boosts my spellpower and with fiend I use Ash as it boosts my spellpower and the debuff is better for spell damage.

Arcane pulse metamagic is based on the most recent cast so once you cast the 5th arcane pulse fully meta'd keep it up. Casting the first 4 arcane pulse without metamagic saves 160 spell points. Arcane Pulse provides more damage over time than Ruin per spell point spent.

If I see a high # of champs or reapers I will throw in a wail of the banshee to thin out the herd for an extra 56sp.

Reaper Play At Heroic Levels
The build starts out kind of slow. Once you get Stricken and Cone you can solo reaper. The first few levels kind of suck. The build picks up significant steam once you have finger of death and wave. At level 30 the build does very well in 5 skull and higher, but I tend to stick in the 6 and under range as high skulls bores me once I got several runs completed. I would put 14 points to Dire Thaumaturge and the rest fo Grim Barricade to start. Once you have a significant number of reaper points you can take the extra 1 stat, 1 dc and 2 spell pen in Dire Thaumaturge instead of the defense.

In terms of leveling order I get cone first and then move over to TS to get feigned health, command and wand and scroll mastery.

Early on Stricken and Consume will be your main dps as they are fully maximized and empowered. Stricken is very front-loaded as well. The cone is solid AOE. Command is good and cheap cc especially during heroic levels. Hold monster helps against reapers once available. Charms are always useful, but for heroic levels it's faster and easier to simply kill stuff.

Heroic Leveling Plan
Warlock is underwhelming the first few levels. I take master's touch at level 1 and Shield at level 2. Shield 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.

[UurlockYgmeov]

*chuckle* might want to include 'Drow' in the description. Guessed it with 20 Chr starting, but helpful to be explicit.

Warlock is on my mind as well.

[DrWily]

We all got Warlocks on our mind.
Just want it to come up to Lammy Land so I can calculate everything at once.

[Red_Knight]

Me, I'm still trying to figure out if Empower is boosting damage on eldrich blast or not.


Oh, and another thing to consider is that the DC to save for half with eldrich blast is based on evocation. So building for enchantment may cause enemies to save for half damage more often

[slarden]

Me, I'm still trying to figure out if Empower is boosting damage on eldrich blast or not.


Oh, and another thing to consider is that the DC to save for half with eldrich blast is based on evocation. So building for enchantment may cause enemies to save for half damage more often

Empower and Maximize don't boost eldritch blast. They do boost cure moderate and EA SLAs.

There is no save against base damage:

https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthrea...=1#post5611292

If the pact damage is considered evocation it may make sense to twist in precise evocation from draconic, although it would require taking an evocation feat. I'll have to see how this works on Lam, but generally reflex saves are lower than the other types, but has the drawback of some mobs being able to evade it entirely if the enemy has a high reflex save.

[Red_Knight]

If the pact damage is considered evocation it may make sense to twist in precise evocation from draconic, although it would require taking an evocation feat. I'll have to see how this works on Lam, but generally reflex saves are lower than the other types, but has the drawback of some mobs being able to evade it entirely if the enemy has a high reflex save.

The fey pact at least is an evocation based DC save for half damage.

Hmm, since the basic blast is force damage, I wonder if a warlock/sorcerer multi-class for eldrich knight would be a good idea? or would you be sacrificing too many warlock feats? Decisions decisions.

[slarden]

Another pure casting variant for someone with alot of epic past lifes is Draconic for the main destiny with Double Rainbow, Rainbow, Prism and Cocoon twisted in. The enchant DC suffers, but DPS goes up significantly and with Mind Fog enchant DC is still workable.

[Angelic-council]

Another pure casting variant for someone with alot of epic past lifes is Draconic for the main destiny with Double Rainbow, Rainbow, Prism and Cocoon twisted in. The enchant DC suffers, but DPS goes up significantly and with Mind Fog enchant DC is still workable.

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.

But if you choose exalted angel, you are not only getting +8 charisma. But moderate healing SLA, divine wrath, sun bolt or leap of faith. Most importantly, +3 stacking DCs. Which is really huge. Draconic SLA has very long CD.. except energy burst ofc, which is twistable. Remember, dragon breath has 5 limited uses with a minute CD.

If you go draconic and choose prism, rainbow, double rainbow and cocoon. You are basically giving up on - 7 extra enchant DC and more spell points.. I just don't see it working.

Also, a question to you. Why enchant and not necro? Necro can instant kill, giving you huge advatage in battle. But enchant will only stun, palalyze. I mean, warlocks in exalted angel with high necro DC will simply out DPS and get most kills in the party compared to draconic/enchant.

[slarden]

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.

But if you choose exalted angel, you are not only getting +8 charisma. But moderate healing SLA, divine wrath, sun bolt or leap of faith. Most importantly, +3 stacking DCs. Which is really huge. Draconic SLA has very long CD.. except energy burst ofc, which is twistable. Remember, dragon breath has 5 limited uses with a minute CD.

If you go draconic and choose prism, rainbow, double rainbow and cocoon. You are basically giving up on - 7 extra enchant DC and more spell points.. I just don't see it working.

Also, a question to you. Why enchant and not necro? Necro can instant kill, giving you huge advatage in battle. But enchant will only stun, palalyze. I mean, warlocks in exalted angel with high necro DC will simply out DPS and get most kills in the party compared to draconic/enchant.

You are right you need to go "all in" for DC/spell penetration with eShavarath coming out soon. Shiradi would be a strong option as you mentioned, but not as a twist.

[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.

[slarden]

I had someone ask me for a pure 20 Warlock dps build for U27 since they didn't want to TR and didn't want to use a +3 lesser heart for paladin levels. I should have probably posted something on that sooner.

This build will let you switch between cc and dps builds during an etr since race and class split is identical. The one drawback of eldritch blast is that everytime I interrupt it to cast a higher dps spell I feel like there is a delay and I am losing dps. So I am going back closer to my first lamannia build which was an enlightened spirit pure warlock 20 DPS build using aura rather than blast. While the aura is passively at work I use low cost spells and slas for more dps.

I've been running this build for about a week - mostly to determine what procs empyrean magic and blood and radiance.

The basic idea is to keep the aura going and use other spells instead of alternating between the eld blast and other spells. This does cost more sp, but I use mostly low costs slas and free warlock clickies. Ruin is very nice, but it drains your sp in a hurry. Still, I like keeping it for some big burst damage. However, if you are running out of sp you can take something like epic damage reduction for 10 more prr.

The aura and blasts charge up empyrean magic and blood and radiance. The reborn in light epic moment is worth taking. Basically, the aura blasts and self healing will keep you at 10 stacks of everything. The DPS is higher than the 17 warlock / 3 paladin version, but PRR, MRR and saves are lower - also you lose the 30/60 damage reduction from the heavy dragonscale armor. Still it's a very survivable build with the great self healing and hp bonus from enlightened spirit. It really depends on your personal play style which is best to play. I tend to favor defenses because I find the dps loss is small enough and "not dying" helps dps as well. If you have 6 or more PDK/Divine past lifes I would use this build instead. Every so often you will fail a save and die, but for the most part with a few PDK/Divine past lifes you will have a solid PRR/MRR and high hp, but saves are a bit weak. When I get sightless I am planning some gear changes.

The aura keeps ticking and acts as a burst. My spell rotation for bursts is:

Divine Wrath - 40 sp
Spirit Blast- 0 sp
Eldritch Burst 0 sp
Energy Burst 20 sp

Single target spells:
Avenging Light - 3sp
Consume - 0 sp
Stricken - 0 sp
Ruin - 119 sp (use situationally only)

Light spellpower is over 550 without any pots. It's 600 with potions and over 730 with the reborn in light epic moment and tainted spellcasting activated.





GEAR

Goggles: Intricate Optics Ins Charisma +3 (fear immunity / ins dex +2 slotted)
Helm: Epic Deific Diadem (power 250 and feather falling slotted)
Necklace: Epic Noxious Embers (Blindness Immunity and Golem Heart Slotted) or can use Resonance from DOTJ
Trinket: Manual of Stealthy Pilfering (for bonus to spellcraft basically since DC isn't critical) (Golem's Heart Slotted)
Cloak: Mysterious Cloak (Heal +15 and Armored Agility +2 slotted - armored agility increases dodge cap by 2)
Belt: Epic Belt of Thoughtful Rememberance (ins con + 2 and greater enchantment focus slotted)
Ring: Ward Token (ins str +2 and ins char + 2 slotted)
Gloves: Iron Mitt (ins int +2 slotted)
Boots: Halcyon Boots (Globe of True Imperial Blood and Greater Evocation slotted)
Lantern Ring (Greater conjuration and spellcraft 15 slotted)
Dumathoin's Bracers (Good Luck +2 slotted - did'nt replace it yet)
Shadow Dragonscale Armor with shadow caster(HP 40 and Spell Agility 15 slotted)

Epic Rod of Mythant with Devotion 138 slotted
Thunderforged Orb: Resonance 150, Sonic Lore 22%, conjuration focus with Meridian Fragment and Perform 13 (best I have ) slotted

There is alot of raid gear, but you don't need any of it really. I plan to get the new acid bracers to replace Dumathoin's but I don't have it yet. One compelling option is to use epic chord of reprisals and Libram of Silver Magic for the orb and using the 17% lore from epic noxious embers. This will likely result in a dps increase overall with 15 more light spell power and 2% more crit chance and damage for everything. If I had enough mats to make a thunderforged light weapon I would do it , but I don't.

FEATS:

1) Empower
3) Maximize
6) Conjuration Focus (Shield Proficiency if using a buckler)
9) Quicken
12) Force of Personality
15) Past Life Wizard
18) Improved Spell Focus Conjuration (shield mastery with buckler or toughness if you can get to 21 base on by 24)
21) Epic Eldritch Blast
24) Epic Spell Focus Conjuration (or Improved Shield Mastery with buckler or Epic Toughness if you can get to 21 base con)
26) Epic Arcane Eldritch Blast
27) Ruin
28) Spell Power Light

Another option instead of conjuration line is mental toughness line for more sp. You could also go with evocation for 20% better success rate on pact damage, but I really like the utility of evards and it works well in high level EE content since the save is based on a strength check rather than a traditional save.

[Ellihor]

The aura and blasts charge up empyrean magic and blood and radiance.

Cool, but how are you getting the extra light spellpower from blood and radiance? You need to cast posivite energy spells. Do you spam the mass cure sla from EA core?

Light spellpower is over 550 without any pots. It's 600 with potions and over 730 with the reborn in light epic moment and tainted spellcasting activated.

What's you sticken damage? Is it worth it? I never took it. Just did a simple math and even with 600 spellpower for me it's only a 420 damage clickie (12d6+12d6*6*1.5). When I'm on single target I just change to the focused eldtrich blast because I belive it's more damage overall. Am I missing anything that makes sticken so good?

Epic Rod of Mythant with Devotion 138 slotted
Thunderforged Orb: Resonance 150, Sonic Lore 22%, conjuration focus with Meridian Fragment and Perform 13 (best I have ) slotted

What's with Rod Mythant? And why not radiance lore instead of sonic lore?

[slarden]

Cool, but how are you getting the extra light spellpower from blood and radiance? You need to cast posivite energy spells. Do you spam the mass cure sla from EA core?

Interestingly enough the aura procs both the positive and light for blood and radiance charging both up to 10 very quickly. I assume somehow either beacon or brilliance is treated as positive energy. I can't remember if the eldritch burst or spirit blast proc'd the positive energy portion, but I am sure about the aura. I think it was just the aura along with mass cure wounds and cocoon that procs the positive.

What's you sticken damage? Is it worth it? I never took it. Just did a simple math and even with 600 spellpower for me it's only a 420 damage clickie (12d6+12d6*6*1.5). When I'm on single target I just change to the focused eldtrich blast because I belive it's more damage overall. Am I missing anything that makes sticken so good?

Yeah with the high spellpower makes sticken and consume really good - slightly better versions of niac's biting cold because of the higher spell power potential and extra crit damage. There are so many numbers floating around so it's hard to tell which #s are coming from which spells/abilities, but I see #s on bosses over 1000 (which I am sure are coming from consume/stricken) which isn't bad for a 0 sp ability.

I use it on bosses or the highest hp enemies (or most dangerous) while everything else is on cooldown. I mostly rely on the combination of the passive aura + spirit blast + eldritch burst + divine wrath + energy burst over and over again to clear anything around me.

What's with Rod Mythant? And why not radiance lore instead of sonic lore?

Epic Rod of Mythant is the weapon which I have just for the ruin: http://ddowiki.com/page/Item:Epic_Rod_of_Mythant

It comes from epic demon assault and can come with either +2 or +4 mythic boost to universal spellpower.

Unfortunately this character more than any of my others has a history of screwing up crafted items. This is my main character so I ran alot of deathwyrms and the first time around I made one weapon with shadow phlogs and another with fire phlogs. Then I realized I screwed up and should have made a spell lore item since I was a shiradi caster. So I ran another 40 of each raid and used my shadow phlogs but never used the fire phlogs. So basically, I only had enough fire phlogs to make a weapon for this build and not enough shadow phlogs.

At the time I thought lantern ring is good enough and it really is, but since light is everything on this character I should have made a Tier 3 light weapon, slotted 138 force, and relied on the 17% lore on my necklace for force and sonic. I am not about to run another 40 fire on thunder peaks to correct that mistake although I did think about it lol. I assume eShroud will be my chance to retool.

So your point is good, that a radiance/radiance lore t3 thunderforged weapon is the better choice than sonic. I am losing 5% and 6sp on my radiance, but gaining on my sonic. So I am losing a bit vs. a more optimal gear setup, but it's not a disaster.

[Relenthe]

I assume that the fact that you are still using the shadow platemail for the 20 warlock version is a typo right? You are probably using medium armor for that version.

Also would you be able to post a screenshot of your prr/mrr and resists with the 20 warlock version, as well as a quick breakdown of your light spellpower?

[slarden]

The enlightened spirit tree is losing the cure moderate SLA, but the build has enough other self-healing that this isn't a major problem.

https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthrea...Spirit-Changes

I replaced 3 tiers of Cure Moderate Wounds SLA with 3x Retribution for 3d6 more damage in my eldritch blast.

[slarden]

I was wrong on my Eld Blast DC calculation based on Varg's most recent comment on it. I am adjusting the original post:

Heighten and other metamagics don't affect Eldritch Blast. It's considered a level 9 spell when that matters (which is part of the formula that makes it 19 base DC+ other factors).

To clarify, the damage from Pacts is triggers much the same way as Shiradi abilities; either both trigger or neither will. For Eldritch Blast, it doesn't matter if the enemy saves or evades - at that point those triggers have already happened.

[slarden]

There are a few changes to the enhancement tree from Lamannia which I will update this weekend. I believe the net of these changes is to lower eldtrich blast DC by 2 while enchantment DC remains the same, but I will be able to confirm it this weekend.

I also want to fit in the new feats that add to eldtrich blast damage.

[slarden]

First of all this kills the 17 warlock / 3 paladin version. There is just no point in sacrificing so much for +11 to saves since those saves will be too low.

I don't think the devs understand the difference in power level of warlocks at heroic levels vs power levels of warlocks at 28. The proposed changes are across the board at all levels and will have a large impact on this build - I will need to test various builds to see where it stacks up, but since other builds are also being nerfed, it's hard to assess the impact. At 28 weapon based builds will still have mortal fear so my best guess is that warlock will move to a b+ build and will be knocked off the top tier (mortal fear is a great equalizer for weapon builds and is not being nerfed). The only possible saving grace is eldritch wave which is the king of warlock burst damage, but hasn't been a primary choice since either enlightened spirit or tainted scholar must be sacrificed to take tier 5 soul eater. The soul eater capstone isn't compelling so while souleater tier 5 will be the obvious choice, either the capstone from tainted scholar or enlightened spirit will be selected. This uses up nearly all 80 AP so locks out the other tree.

My initial reaction is to pass on the 10% crit damage and spend 38 in soul eater and 42 in enlightened spirit. This is less dps than 38 in soul eater and 42 in tainted scholar, but the 20% hp , extra prr from bab bonus and passive hp might make the build better overall. Then again I always end up with max DPS so I will likely somehow end up with T5 souleater with TS capstone.

https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthrea...e5#post5703203

Here is a quick impact of the changes.

PRR Before
Medium Armor: 20
Medium armor Proficiency: 17 (tested by taking armor on and off - total benefit of med armor is 37 when Resilience of Body is toggled off)
Spiritual Bastion: 13
Resilience of Body: 6 (due to BAB bonus)
Dumathoin's Bracers: 30
Celestial Spirit: 6 (tested by toggling on and off - has 6 PRR benefit I wasn't expecting)
Past Lifes: 0 - 36 Divine/PDK
----------------------------------
Total PRR depending on past lifes: 92 - 128 (47.92% - 56.14%)

PRR After
Medium Armor with resilience of body; 42
Spiritual Bastion: 13
Dumathoin's Bracers: 30
Celestial Spirit: 6 (tested by toggling on and off - has 6 PRR benefit I wasn't expecting)
Past Lifes: 0 - 36 Divine/PDK
----------------------------------
Total PRR depending on past lifes: 91 - 127 (47.64% - 55.95%)

MRR Before
Paragon's Aegis Feat x 5: 25
Medium Armor: 20
Dumathoin's Bracers: 30
Shape Vestements: 10
Resilence of Soul: 6
Spiritual Ward: 13
Mysterious Cloak: 25
Past Lifes: 0 - 9
--------------------------
Total MRR depending on # of warlock past lifes 129-138 (56.33% - 57.98%)

MRR After
Paragon's Aegis Feat x 5: 25
Dumathoin's Bracers: 30
Shape Vestements: 10
Resilence of Soul: 6
Spiritual Ward: 13
Mysterious Cloak: 25
Past Lifes: 0 - 9
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Total MRR depending on # of warlock past lifes 109-118 (52.15%-54.13%)

Impact on DPS rotation of spells
Passive Aura: 15% dps reduction
Spirit Blast: 16.67% dps reduction
Eldritch Blast: 16.67% dps reduction
Energy Burst: no change
Divine Wrath: no change
Avenging Light: no change
Stricken: 16.67% dps reduction
Consume: 16.67% dps reduction

By switching to capstone (enligtened spirit) and tier 5 (soul eater) this replaces spirit blast with eldritch wave for about double damage compared to spirit blast, but giving up tainted scholar crit damage is about a 9% dps decrease so obviously the optimal dps builds souleater (tier 5) and tainted scholar (capstone), but for more survivability tainted scholar (tier 5) and enlightened spirit (capstone) is still a viable option.

I will need to test with the lower dps to figure out which option is best.

I should also point out that with no changes to the build, dps is down about 14%. This build will still be able to solo all the same content it could solo before this change, it will just take a bit longer. The build already has easy potential for either PRR improvement (to withstand more incoming damage) or dps improvement (toee set, book from haunted halls, human damage boost etc), although not enough to make up for the nerf totally. Still the bottom line is the build doesn't need to change - but will be improved by opting for the unscathed eldritch wave.