Pure Casting Warlock DC Eld Blast Build

[slarden]

So I played a bit with the Soul Eater stuff and a coulpe of feats and some Shiradi abilities, as a bard/warlock iconic at level 26 just to try them out.

First of all Eldritch Cone seems to be very good in Shiradi, if u don't use Energy Burst or Hellball.
Shiradi has no bursting skills and with only 2 cleaves from ES I had no follow-up to quickly clear out groups of mobs.
It seems that in Shiradi sustained damage (cone) is actually better.
In EA or Draconic with its bursting, cleaves and aura are obviously the way to go.

Eldritch Wave sometimes dealt tons of damage, sometimes felt absolutely useless.
With the random shiradi effects it did some nice procs and was also useful at the start of a fight. Due to the 3 hits it does, it can quickly render a group of mobs helpless.
Imo definetly not worth losing ES T5, Shining Through and Spirit Blast even if playing in Shiradi. I had to heal so many times without Shining Through
Outside of Shiradi just forget it.

I Think if you go in Shiradi you are probably a con build dumping charisma anyhow. You lose about 6 DC compared to exalted Angel (3 from cores, 1 from Angelic presence and say 4 charisma from tree). My personal experience is I don't think the shiradi procs make up for the other lost dps. I like wiz and sorc or the combo better for shiradi than warlock.

For cone, you are down at least 400 spellpower and 6d6 no-fail light damage compared to enlightened spirit burst in exalted angel - assuming you twist in 30 to be only down 400, but your basic blast is worth 30% more damage and better crit chance.

Eldritch wave is good and requires great positioning and I don't think it makes up for the loss of dps when using cone. I still prefer the consistency of blasting with higher spellpower and the bonus light damage. The cone, wave and hellball work well together.

I don't think you go wrong either way, but I don't think SE/TS has any sort of sizable dps benefit if any. It has a huge advantage for a necro warlock build obviously.

Steal Life Force with 102 hamp it healed me for 300-400 HP.
Not bad, but not worth investing 20 points in Soul Eater.

Burning Blood SLA hits for around 200 to 500 (crit) with zero investment in acid/fire. Pansophic only
No idea how it is with high fire/acid SP and crit

Blood Feast is unfortunately subject to Spell Resistance. And with +6/+7 insightfull CON items at level 30 it will be even more worthless as it doesn't stack. And having an extra button to click every 20 seconds is not fun.


Primal Scream 30d20 sonic damage
Interesting aoe damage for bursting plus the CON buff
only 5 charges tho so I wouldn't choose it for the damage

Wild Shots now this showed some nice numbers (from 2 to 5k, with a 9k crit using Wellspring of Power)
Unfortunately it hits each foe only once, but it is very nice for aoe damage.
It is strange that this skill is actually in the Shiradi destiny, cause I used it mostly for bursting down mob groups and it worked quite well.
I really liked this one and it seems promising with high force SP/crit.
It might actually be worth twisting in aswell (it's Tier 1 only!), if playing in EA/Draconic for more bursting

Rain of Arrows ok this is very random. 10% chance to hit per second for 30 seconds is not that great. There were too many numbers on the screen to notice anything.
I had to drop Stand And Deliver to get it, but Stand is also not that great imo.
+10 SP if u stand still
No one stands still while zerging the quest. And I imagine Rain of Arrows>10 SP during boss fights in which you might stand still.


Burst of Glacial Wrath used it with empower/maximize turned off.
Just to render the mobs helpless at the start of the fight. And it worked quite well.
If you are zerg/TRing and playing with cleaves and burst then it's definetly good for speed runs.
Maybe even faster than playing with Intensify Spell.
If you play in Shiradi and do raids/LE and stuff then nope.
-75 SP for boss fights is not worth it.

Forced Escape max 20d20 sonic damage vs Fortitude save with lame DC (20 + WIS mod)
don't really care about the panic button, just for the damage.
I still don't know how much the damage is tho (am still level 26)
I'm pretty sure it's not worth losing Hellball or Arcane Pulse tho

Spirit Blades instead of Arcane Pulse?
They are veeeeery slow and can be dodged if the mobs move.
I don't know how much damage they deal with high force SP/crit, cause I'm still level 26 and can't try them out yet.
But I've been hearing that they really suck and A. Pulse wins.


This has been so far my experience and It was very fun. I actually tried them while soloing the LoD chain on EE and it was way harder without Shining Through
Note that my goal is fast TRs and not raids/LE atm, so opinions may vary on each ability.
I am curious to see what you think about Eldritch Cone, the 2 Shiradi spells and Burst of G. Wrath

Good comments on these other options. I've had various builds but am currently taking shining through - hopefully that matches up with I have posted- I sometimes make tweaks and don't update the build page. In shiradi I use both wild shots and rain of arrows although I think especially rain of arrows is weak for being an epic-moment type ability. Tea with the queen is much weaker than it used to be also now that the proc rate for the damage boosts is much lower.

Spirit blades is a non-starter because it can't be quickened.

Hellball is awesome, but such a drain on SP and I over-use it when I take it. Forced Escape I was better at managing.

I take intensify, epic eld blast, ruin, greater ruin for epic feats. I take arcane pulse and hellball, but am on the fence with hellball due to sp cost. It's tough giving up wellspring of power though - a very useful burst dps option. If I gave up anything for it - it would be greater ruin and not intensify or epic eld blast that gives me ongoing dps.

Dire charge and burst of glacial wrath are compelling and interesting options, but the cost is so high. Primal scream is too few uses, but great if it had more charges. I like the souleater SLAS but am not currently taking any and instead going deeper to TS since arcane pulse means I can pass on the single target SLAs from SE.