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.

[Angelic-council]

I thought very long about this.. It would be wise if warlocks go necro focus.

Warlocks spell cap at lv6.. 2 DCs will be added from core, 1 DC from tier 5, 2 more DCs from the capstone (4 charisma), 2 DC from ES (AoM).. 6 charisma from EA and +3 stacking DC.. At this point, warlocks are 1 step ahead of wizards. Just need to get circle of death, so they connect circle + wail, which is very powerful instant kill combination.

- Warlock: 6 DC (cap), 2 DC (TS: core), 1 DC (tier 5), 2 DC (TS capstone), 2 effective DC (ES: AoM), 3 DC (exalted angel), 1 DC (EA aura), 3 DC (magister) = 20 DC.

- Wizard PM: 9 DC (cap), 3 DC (arch lich), 1 DC tier 5, 1 DC (PM capstone), 1 DC (AM), 3 DC (magister) = 18 DC.

Warlocks can also DPS on top of that: Divine wrath, Energy burst, Hellball = all mighty AoE spells that favor charisma based which also scaled with 60% critical damage.

I don't think Walocks should take enchantment instead of necromacy simply because they can DPS very well while freely moving around. You don't really have to hold anything since you can clear the pack of monsters easily as long as SP last. And thanks to the irresistible dance, they can face orange named just fine.

All in all, if people want EE burst damage and EE capable instant killing, they must go pure TS/ES, exalted angel no matter what. I have tried other options, but.. as long as we play calm and professional (not slow, but aggressively), having high necro DC will save warlocks life in many critical situations

Edit: the only downside of this would be that warlocks have limited SP... Warlocks main destiny is primal.. and warlocks shiradi don't need as much SP as exalted angel warlocks do. Surely they can switch destinies anytime. But in a long run, shiradi warlocks shine since they have 2 - 3 separate elemental in a single eldritch blast that scaled individually with shiradi proc, especially chain eldritch would be awesome as it's AoE.

[slarden]

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.

Thank you, based on this I changed things around a bit although it's only the secondary damage that is subject to a save.

I ended up dropping the smaller light SLAs from EA and going for more CHA. I also switched from 3 spell focus enchantment feats to 1 spell focus enchantment, 1 spell focus evocation and 1 past life wizard feat.

For gear I will need to wear the sage's cloak for +5 enchant DC, Thunderforged evocation +6 and thunderforged spell penetration +7 (spell power tbd). I don't have enough phlogs to add tier 3 on the character I will make a warlock, but I do have epic noxious embers giving me 17% lore for everything. I am still undecided whether I should not worry about the secondary effect saves and go with necromancy or focus on just evocation and enchantment. If I focus on evocation and enchantment my spell list will need to change.

The fact that fey damage is sonic ends up being a net positive since perform is based on charisma. It just means I need to fit in a perform item/augment, but my perform will end up being higher than my spellcraft despite the ranks being 11 vs. 23 since perform is cha-based.

The elritch blast damage is really slow although the damage itself is a bit higher than I expected - and this is with my first life test character.

I believe with utterdark blast my spellpower is based off of light instead of force which is a good thing, but I haven't confirmed that yet.

With eShavarath just around the corner I might actually end up taking the judgment / lay to rest/ judge the many line in EA for 5 pts. This would cost me 2 cha but is worth it in content with alot of undead/evil outsiders.

I am looking forward to playing this build on one of my chracters for comparison purposes.

[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.

[slarden]

I thought very long about this.. It would be wise if warlocks go necro focus.

Warlocks spell cap at lv6.. 2 DCs will be added from core, 1 DC from tier 5, 2 more DCs from the capstone (4 charisma), 2 DC from ES (AoM).. 6 charisma from EA and +3 stacking DC.. At this point, warlocks are 1 step ahead of wizards. Just need to get circle of death, so they connect circle + wail, which is very powerful instant kill combination.

- Warlock: 6 DC (cap), 2 DC (TS: core), 1 DC (tier 5), 2 DC (TS capstone), 2 effective DC (ES: AoM), 3 DC (exalted angel), 1 DC (EA aura), 3 DC (magister) = 20 DC.

- Wizard PM: 9 DC (cap), 3 DC (arch lich), 1 DC tier 5, 1 DC (PM capstone), 1 DC (AM), 3 DC (magister) = 18 DC.

Warlocks can also DPS on top of that: Divine wrath, Energy burst, Hellball = all mighty AoE spells that favor charisma based which also scaled with 60% critical damage.

I don't think Walocks should take enchantment instead of necromacy simply because they can DPS very well while freely moving around. You don't really have to hold anything since you can clear the pack of monsters easily as long as SP last. And thanks to the irresistible dance, they can face orange named just fine.

All in all, if people want EE burst damage and EE capable instant killing, they must go pure TS/ES, exalted angel no matter what. I have tried other options, but.. as long as we play calm and professional (not slow, but aggressively), having high necro DC will save warlocks life in many critical situations

Edit: the only downside of this would be that warlocks have limited SP... Warlocks main destiny is primal.. and warlocks shiradi don't need as much SP as exalted angel warlocks do. Surely they can switch destinies anytime. But in a long run, shiradi warlocks shine since they have 2 - 3 separate elemental in a single eldritch blast that scaled individually with shiradi proc, especially chain eldritch would be awesome as it's AoE.

Outstanding points thank you!

Since I need to spec for evocation, necromancy and spell penetration (with eShavarath coming out soon) I will have some gear challenges. I can use the sage's cloak which provides +5 enchantment DC, but necro has to be on a TF weapon which means I either have to wear the sage's necklace (-1 evoc DC vs TF) or bracers (-3 spell pen vs TF). Alternatively I can just not worry about the evocation DC and go necromancy.

My playstyle favors enchantment DC since I group more than solo. I agree necromancy is better for soloing, but groups hate it when a caster comes in and instakills stuff. They love mass hold. I will say that while the "pew pew" warlock attacks seem fairly reasonable considering they are 0 sp, I was really glad when energy burst and divine wrath were off timers.

I think you are right about Warlock being better than PM. PMs have the extra feats - I couldn't fit in the max DC feats on my warlock, but overall I like warlock self healing in EA better than PM self healing which lacks a big emergency healing option. Realistically a PM needs to go evocation in AM since their boss dps sucks so bad so while the AM option is there - it's probably not going to be taken. I also forgot to include the Angelic Presence stance in my calcs.

Maximize/Empower help with divine wrath and cure SLAs, but not with the Eld Blast or Energy Burst so dropping at least empower is also an option. Hellball makes sense as my level 28 ED feat and I think I can fit in a potency item.

If I do necromancy I can drop mass hold for power word stun for more single target un-savable cc.

Great insights - thank you again!

[slarden]

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.

I am not sure what the right class mix is to max dps. I am sure a multiclass shiradi with warlock and wizard levels can really pour out the dps, but I am not sure what the right mix is yet. It may end up being warlock/wizard/fvs.

For DC casting I am thinking it makes sense for Warlock to go pure for the capstone benefits and because the AP spend in tainted scholar/ enlightened spirit leaves so little room for other trees.

[Angelic-council]

Outstanding points thank you!

Since I need to spec for evocation, necromancy and spell penetration (with eShavarath coming out soon) I will have some gear challenges. I can use the sage's cloak which provides +5 enchantment DC, but necro has to be on a TF weapon which means I either have to wear the sage's necklace (-1 evoc DC vs TF) or bracers (-3 spell pen vs TF). Alternatively I can just not worry about the evocation DC and go necromancy.

My playstyle favors enchantment DC since I group more than solo. I agree necromancy is better for soloing, but groups hate it when a caster comes in and instakills stuff. They love mass hold. I will say that while the "pew pew" warlock attacks seem fairly reasonable considering they are 0 sp, I was really glad when energy burst and divine wrath were off timers.

I think you are right about Warlock being better than PM. PMs have the extra feats - I couldn't fit in the max DC feats on my warlock, but overall I like warlock self healing in EA better than PM self healing which lacks a big emergency healing option. Realistically a PM needs to go evocation in AM since their boss dps sucks so bad so while the AM option is there - it's probably not going to be taken. I also forgot to include the Angelic Presence stance in my calcs.

Maximize/Empower help with divine wrath and cure SLAs, but not with the Eld Blast or Energy Burst so dropping at least empower is also an option. Hellball makes sense as my level 28 ED feat and I think I can fit in a potency item.

If I do necromancy I can drop mass hold for power word stun for more single target un-savable cc.

Great insights - thank you again!

Absolutely mate!

Warlocks can't do anything about 300k HP bosses, except keep spamming eldritch blast and SLAs. But that is not an issue, it's just matter of time. However, the real problem is.. how safely and fast you can get to the boss. With divine wrath, energy burst and hellball, you can unleash devastating burst AoE damage and instant kill any trush with ease. That only leaves orange named, some are 80k - 150k HP buffed. And this is where irresistible single target stun jumps in.

[Blackheartox]

Absolutely mate!

Warlocks can't do anything about 300k HP bosses, except keep spamming eldritch blast and SLAs. But that is not an issue, it's just matter of time. However, the real problem is.. how safely and fast you can get to the boss. With divine wrath, energy burst and hellball, you can unleash devastating burst AoE damage and instant kill any trush with ease. That only leaves orange named, some are 80k - 150k HP buffed. And this is where irresistible single target stun jumps in.

From my playing around with crit damage warlock on lama il be honest here, warlocks will have the absolute best anti "300 k hp bosses" tools from all casters.

Also once you count in spellpower crit damage and the "not yet seen" souleater dots, im pretty sure almost all arcanes will swap to warlock.

You can be a better dc caster when you count all debuffs, you can be a bettter shiradi caster since your crit damage scales best with shiradi, you can do a better exalted light spellpower nuker with some dc casting..

Potential is good

[slarden]

From my playing around with crit damage warlock on lama il be honest here, warlocks will have the absolute best anti "300 k hp bosses" tools from all casters.

Also once you count in spellpower crit damage and the "not yet seen" souleater dots, im pretty sure almost all arcanes will swap to warlock.

You can be a better dc caster when you count all debuffs, you can be a bettter shiradi caster since your crit damage scales best with shiradi, you can do a better exalted light spellpower nuker with some dc casting..

Potential is good

I definitely see alot of potential. You wrote an excellent summary of why a necromancer warlock would beat a PM on Lamannia. I tend to give a lower weight to some of those debuffs than you do, but the king of debuffs is necromancy augmentation and PMs with death aura, lesser death aura and a large pool of low cost death spells, symbols, etc. can trigger necromancy augmentation easier than anything a warlock can do. Of course I am open to the possibility that I am missing something and a warlock can do that too.

I don't think a warlock will realistically cast 4 eld blasts for -4 save to a target. I do agree some of the other debuffs are useful, but the combination of 2 auras and necromancy augmentation can't be underestimated either.

[Kerthyn]

I believe with utterdark blast my spellpower is based off of light instead of force which is a good thing, but I haven't confirmed that yet.

Did some quick tests with utterdark and it does seem to work based on light.
Might be an option to drop boosting force if you wanted to, unless your in shiradi and want to boost the 7% force proc.

How's fey pact been working out for you with your Eldritch Blast? Are you seeing many mobs saving/evading the reflex dc?

I'm trying to figure out which pact will be the most useful dc wise. I've tried the other two, and i'm not really seeing much difference so far in mobs saving the pact damage.

[Red_Knight]

Did some quick tests with utterdark and it does seem to work based on light.
Might be an option to drop boosting force if you wanted to, unless your in shiradi and want to boost the 7% force proc.

How's fey pact been working out for you with your Eldritch Blast? Are you seeing many mobs saving/evading the reflex dc?

I'm trying to figure out which pact will be the most useful dc wise. I've tried the other two, and i'm not really seeing much difference so far in mobs saving the pact damage.

Been seeing CR 0.5 dogs Evading all three pacts right now. I think the save type is bugged. Great Old One feels like it'll be the most useful in the long run. Melee type mobs tend to have poor will saves after all. So far I'm not a fan of Fiend pact though. Too many gray oozes early on. And at low levels the force damage alone takes forever to kill them.

*shudders at the thought of running The Pit on a fiend pact warlock*

[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]

Did some quick tests with utterdark and it does seem to work based on light.
Might be an option to drop boosting force if you wanted to, unless your in shiradi and want to boost the 7% force proc.

How's fey pact been working out for you with your Eldritch Blast? Are you seeing many mobs saving/evading the reflex dc?

I'm trying to figure out which pact will be the most useful dc wise. I've tried the other two, and i'm not really seeing much difference so far in mobs saving the pact damage.

I apologize it appears I didn't update my posts confirming light damage was used for utterdark. I only ran in fey pact so far so I didn't really get a chance to compare it with the other options. For dogs, archers, rogues, etc. they will clearly evade quite a bit in high level content with a 70DC, but in general reflex save is the lowest save out there so on everyone else I should get more damage on average.

I don't have a really good system for collecting #s and assessing which is best overall. If anyone has something please share it with us