Pure Casting Warlock DC Eld Blast Build

[jambajuicey]

I TRd after playing this build into nearly the same but as a fiend and mostly SE/ES and necro spec - I am surprised at how little impact being fiend is realistically impacting me. I've kept kill counts higher then others in group most times except for the warden build (he's a machine). After going from heroic to EE at 20, my CoD and Wail are pretty pointless - some level drain I guess... Devour the soul - seems to hardly ever work even when mob is debuffed. I find myself missing eldritch ball from T5 TS alot. Also really miss the confusion percentage from EB that TS brings.. that is amazing crowd control on EE. Played this build in EA/DC/SC destinies now - been sticking in DC for shear firepower - not sure how but I seem to be missing the SC pew pew that people are referring too (ran with prism - should I have been in stay good?)

Regardless - really enjoying this class and once I hit 28 again, I'll switch to a melee ES variant likely warden to see how that plays! Love this thread and major props to OP - great way to start a casting lock *sticky this ftw

[slarden]

I have same point spent in EA except for:

-Endless Faith x3
- Healing Power x3

I got Endless faith x1
Healing Power x2
Sounburst x3

After swiching my ED around i am liking soundburst x3 quite a bit. Your suggested changes make sense if a player doesn't have + 7 tome. With the +7 tome they can drop a CHA and 1 endless faith.

Thank you.

[Vanhooger]

After swiching my ED around i am liking soundburst x3 quite a bit. Your suggested changes make sense if a player doesn't have + 7 tome. With the +7 tome they can drop a CHA and 1 endless faith.

Thank you.

In fact I still look for +7 tome.

Glad you like it

[slarden]

If you haven't already seen this, a change is coming in U27:

https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthrea...ts#post5652879

While I don't think this change is needed or even a good idea, it does end all debate about whether it's better to overweight tainted scholar vs. enlightened spirit.

I find self healing sufficient with mass cure moderate SLA and cocoon and never felt I needed shining through anyhow.

The big change is that spirit blast and eldrtich burst will be scaling to 120% spellpower to 150% spellpower. This is definitely a hit, but it's worse for people using tier 5 enlightened spirit instead of tainted scholar. Voice your approval or displeasure using the link above if you have a strong opinion either way.

Tainted Scholar gives 10% crit damage, 1d6 extra damage to eldritch blast and eldritch ball is an aoe eldritch blast that can be targeted from a distance and still scales with 150% spellpower. It has a cooldown of 6 seconds. Spirit Blast gives an extra 10d6 light damage to just the spirit blast and scales with 120% spellpower and has an 8 second cooldown. While spirit blast is still the king of warlock aoe, I think tainted scholar is definitely the better choice now. I always preferred tainted scholar, although it was a highly questionable choice because of how good spirit blast +30 spellpower was prior to the upcoming change.

I'll take 10% crit damage on everything and 1d6 on all eldritch blast over a slightly better burst with spirit blast. The 2 second shorter cooldown , 1d6 eldritch blast damage, 3 DC, 10% crit damage and ability to use eldritch ball from a longer distance was always something I valued. Now it's the clear choice... at least for me lol

Please post your opinions using the link above about the planned change if you have an opinion about it.

[kendo]

If you haven't already seen this, a change is coming in U27:

https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthrea...ts#post5652879

While I don't think this change is needed or even a good idea, it does end all debate about whether it's better to overweight tainted scholar vs. enlightened spirit.

I find self healing sufficient with mass cure moderate SLA and cocoon and never felt I needed shining through anyhow.

where are you getting the mass cure SLA? I am sure I am just missing it but not seeing that on wiki in the TS or ES enhancements or any of the pact options

[Tom116]

where are you getting the mass cure SLA? I am sure I am just missing it but not seeing that on wiki in the TS or ES enhancements or any of the pact options

Cure Mass SLA is from Exalted Angel destiny, one of the innates

[Spekdah_NZ]

where are you getting the mass cure SLA? I am sure I am just missing it but not seeing that on wiki in the TS or ES enhancements or any of the pact options

It's in Exalted Angel ED [http://ddowiki.com/page/Exalted_Angel], 2nd core. So not available till 20.

[kendo]

It's in Exalted Angel ED [http://ddowiki.com/page/Exalted_Angel], 2nd core. So not available till 20.

and you make your way through the destinies so will probably need to stay with shining through until I get into EA.

thanks for the information, I always forget to check through the destinies. so many build ideas assume you have all destinies maxed and pull from there rather than build with what is available to the particular class and / or race

[Rusty_Can]

Devour the soul - seems to hardly ever work even when mob is debuffed.

From another thread:

Ran a few tests on Lamannia.

The DC formula advertised in the spell description (18 + warlock levels + CHA modifier) looks completely off.

The actual DC seems to be 10 + spell level (6) + CHA modifier + anything that boosts Necromancy spells (gear, feats, enhancements, ED abilities).

Heighten doesn't seem to have any effect.

Necromancy DC =
+ 10 (base)
+ 6 (spell level)
+ 26 CHA modifier
+ 3 (feats: Spell Focus: Necromancy, Greater Spell Focus: Necromancy, Past Life: Arcane Initiate)
+ 9 (gear: + 6 Dwarvencraft Necromancy Focus + 1 Shadow Caster + 2 Topaz of Greater Necromancy)
+ 3 (Necromancy Specialist)
+ 1 (Immortal Will)
+ 1 (ship buffs)
= 59

Target saved with 60, failed with 58.

Removed my TF scepter: DC dropped by 6; target saved with 53, died with 52.

Dropped Necromancy Specialist: DC dropped by another 3; target saved with 51, died with 49.

[slarden]

I was chatting with someone from Sarlona and it sounds like my enhancements below may not add up to 80. Here is a screen shot of what I am taking. I will make corrections to the enhancements shortly. I will also note that these enhancements are for someone already in Exalted Angel with the mass cure moderate wounds sla. If you are working in off destinies I would suggest taking tier 5 of enlightened spirt for Spirit Blast and Shining Through instead of Tier 5 Tainted Scholar. The main reason is for the extra self-healing since dps is lower outside of exalted angel. I also recommend that setup when running in Shiradi.



This specific character doesn't have many past lifes. He was a dedicated raid healer I converted into a warlock because he already a drow fvs and had an unused lesser +20 heart from the enh pass. His only epic past lifes are 3x arcane alacrity I got for faster raises and heals. He has 1 past life wizard. His only raid item is a epic littany and epic diadem he got from running 20x mod when groups needed a healer.

For the person I chatted with last night that just reached 20 and has been away for the game for a while, please let me know if you need help running any quests or flagging. LFMs are fairly easy to find on Sarlona as well, but you are free to join us any time.

Quick note - toolbars look sparse because I use the same format on all my characters regardless of how many slots they actually need.

On another note I will be posting suggested U27 changes to this raid shortly. I am focusing on getting all my characters flagged for the raid right now, but will be testing out changes to the build shortly. I think it may be worth spending 5 points on the judgement line in Exalted Angel, but I want to test it.

[redoubt]

I'm thinking about rerolling my wizard enchanter into a warlock enchanter and this build looks like what I want.

Could you please talk a little about how this build plays now that you have some time on it? Do you cast enchantments much? How is the spell point pool? How well do your non EB spells land? What kind of rotation do you do (if you do)? etc. Thanks!

[slarden]

The will saves in U27 are high. Even with mind fog "enchantment" isn't a very effective focus for EE Shavarath. I ran through the chain 3 times with a guildy on EE.

I ended up making a few minor respecs after the first run. I swapped on epic sage's shoes (not ideal gear but something I could slot quickly to test) for +5 conjuration focus and slotted a +2 conjuration augment to help out my Evard's Black Tentacles. Evard's works because it goes against a strength check rather than a standard save.

Evard's Black Tentacles ended up being my primary cc spell in the 3 quests, although it only has a 10 second duration with a 20 second cooldown and it doesn't hit everything and requires more skill to play than standard cc. Still, I found it more effective than mind fog + mass hold or mind fog + dancing ball. In addition "Bewitching blast" from tier 4 tainted scholar really worked well in ee Shavarath. If you are not taking the blast you should strongly consider it. Having a few enemies attacking other enemies makes a huge difference while evard's is on a timer

So basically this means DPS matters the most in eShavarath EE. I was testing on my main which is my most accomplished character (randowl) in terms of past lifes, gear, etc. So I was able to twist in prism, rainbow and double rainbow for dps along with cocooon. I fully realize this isn't something most people can do - and it's not something I wear as a badge of honor since it means I probably play the game more than I should lol. I am just trying to let you know what I've tried and what works. Being in EA with those twisted in worked really well, but it meant giving up on enchantment completely to do so. If you twist in acid energy burst that also works really well and I may end up swapping out the double rainbow trio for energy burst again.

Since the DC was doing me no good - same with tier 5 confusion in tainted scholar I switched to tier 5 enlightened spirit instead of tainted scholar. This gave me spirt blast, shining through, beacon and displacement SLA. This is overkill for self-healing, but it did give me a bit more freedom having the extra heal clickie.

Even with the nerf spirit blast and eldtritch burst were working well for me. My usual rotation was to start off with Evard's followed by spirit blast/eldritch burst/divine wrath (the tier 5 ball from tainted scholar I do miss - although it was slow I loved being able to hit mobs with it immediately and from a distance). Evard's didn't get everything but it got enough. By the time it wore off the mobs were down and some were confused from bewitching blast.

There has been alot talk about warlocks causing lag in the new raid so I switched my main to a mechanic build to farm the raid and then I will be back to warlock once I have a few items I want. Hopefully by then the lag issue will be resolved. Since Evard's works so well and enchantment works so poorly in EE eShavarath I am contemplating a more survivable multi-class build capable of soloing eShavarath EE easier:

15 Warlock
3 Paladin (or fighter if you prefer the other pacts) for defense stance, heavy armor and saves
2 Wizard for 1 feat and to reduce arcane spell failure so I can wear heavy armor (15% from drow tree, 15% from augment, 5% from eld knight tree)

This build would end up with higher hp, higher prr/mrr, higher saves (amazing saves) at the cost of a little dps and DC. You can also use a buckler in the off hand to boost prr more with shield mastery, improved shield mastery and twisting in legendary shield mastery. This build would work well in either shiradi or exalted angel. It works fine as bladeforged or fleshy, although to get the reconstruct SLA you are giving up some AP.

I tried out the lay to rest- judgment - judge the many comb from exalted angel and it did work really well, but it required a bit too much maintenance in my opinion - blasting is easier lol. It is a nice dps boost, but you have to be willing to play a much more active style to make use of it. When I used it I would always start off with evard's then a quick judgment and then blast away. I didn't really use lay to rest - once a single mob had judgment and you killed it, it started the chain reaction with judge the many and took care of itself. You have to take lay to rest as a prereq for judge the many - but I wouldn't bother using it.

[slarden]

I'm thinking about rerolling my wizard enchanter into a warlock enchanter and this build looks like what I want.

Could you please talk a little about how this build plays now that you have some time on it? Do you cast enchantments much? How is the spell point pool? How well do your non EB spells land? What kind of rotation do you do (if you do)? etc. Thanks!

I just used my free LR +20 to swap out of warlock on Friday to start farming the raid. There is alot of talk about warlocks being the cause of lag in the new raid so I decided to farm it as a mechanic even though I don't have ideal gear - also since I wanted to try out mechanic some. I do plan to go back to warlock once I am done (or as soon as the lag issue is figured out).

If you are talking about eShavarath specifically please see the previous post. The original build I made was in anticipation of eShavarath and eVale. I wanted a high DC caster. Now the reality sunk in that enchantment DC isn't optimal there and I think a multiclass build is better. Warlocks are squishy which is a non-issue when cc is working. When cc is not working it's much more obvious unfortunately. Favored soul is the obvious choice for dps and spell point regeneration. 3 fvs gives you more crits, spell points, scourge, just reward and shield of condemnation (haven't tested if it works properly with light eld blast). 3 pal or 3 fighter gives you defensive stance and harmor although you then need to reduce arcane spell failure then.

For epic tr it's a great build and in almost all content I've been happy with it. It didn't work as well for me in ee Shavarath without a few adjustments which I listed previously.

[slarden]

Enchantment DC doesn't work on anything important in the new quests and all that matters in the new raid is DPS so I made the following changes:

Warlock 17 / Paladin 3 (or 3 fighter if you prefer a different pact than fey - this also frees up 2 feat slots)

This build has a little more focus on DPS and alot more focus on defenses since cc was my primary defense previously. I wear heavy armor and accept the 5% arcane failure penalty which isn't applying to Eldritch Blast.

NOTE: When I originally created this I added an option to take 20 PRR from legendary shield mastery, but this no longer works with an orb. It works fine with a buckler. I will be updating this post shortly for other options when using an orb.

FEATS:

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

ENHANCEMENTS



GEAR Changes

Necklace: Resonation

Destiny: Exalted Angel (works good in Shiradi but I prefer Exalted for a more effective Evard's, Divine Wrath, mass cure moderate and Judgement Line)

Recommended Twists:
- Energy Burst Acid (if you have the Dissolution Bracers)
- Impyrean Magic or Fey Form (Legendary Shield Mastery if using a buckler)
- Cocoon

If you have a maxed out character Empyrean Magic or Fey Form for 4th twist.



In the current build I am running with Double Rainbow, Rainbow, Prism, Cocoon, but I also soloed Amarath with Energy Burst, Empyrean Magic and Cocoon.

GEAR

Goggles: Intricate Optics Ins Charisma +3 (fear immunity / ins dex +2 slotted)
Helm: Epic Deific Diadem (power 250 and feather falling slotted)
Necklace: Resonation (Blindness Immunity and Golem Heart Slotted)
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 Dragonplate Armor with shadow guardian (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.

PRR/MRR
With no past lifes and an orb (116 / 131)
With 9 divine past lifes, 3 pdk past lifes, 3 warlock past lifes and an orb (152/140)
With no past lifes and a buckler (141 / 131)
With 9 dlvine past lifes, 3 pdks past lifes, 3 warlock past lifes and a buckler (172/140) - this would be overkill on PRR

[slarden]

I completed all 3 quests EE solo very easily with this build. No pots were used. I did use mana clickies a few times, but also passed on shrines knowing I had the clickies. So all 3 quests can be completed without any spell point potions:

I am hoping to run a duo EN Defiler of the Just, but the friend I usually duo raids with may not be available before the changes next week.

The enemies killed by misadventure were effectively killed by the light proc from judgment or judge the many.

[Relenthe]

Can you confirm that you are getting the extra PRR from the shield mastery line and legendary shield mastery? I thought that they fixed that a few updates ago. Also on one of my characters with the shield line I lose the extra PRR when I go from a shield to orb.

Nice build nonetheless.

[Kirous]

Can you confirm that you are getting the extra PRR from the shield mastery line and legendary shield mastery? I thought that they fixed that a few updates ago. Also on one of my characters with the shield line I lose the extra PRR when I go from a shield to orb.
.

I just tried with Unyielding Sentinel's Legendary Shield Mastery 1/3 and it was not working with orbs.

U24 notes have "Shield Mastery and Improved Shield Mastery no longer function with Orb"
and U24 Patch 2 notes have "Unyielding Sentinel's Legendary Shield Mastery no longer works with Orbs."

[slarden]

Can you confirm that you are getting the extra PRR from the shield mastery line and legendary shield mastery? I thought that they fixed that a few updates ago. Also on one of my characters with the shield line I lose the extra PRR when I go from a shield to orb.

Nice build nonetheless.

I just tried with Unyielding Sentinel's Legendary Shield Mastery 1/3 and it was not working with orbs.

U24 notes have "Shield Mastery and Improved Shield Mastery no longer function with Orb"
and U24 Patch 2 notes have "Unyielding Sentinel's Legendary Shield Mastery no longer works with Orbs."

Thank you both. I missed this change.

I did not take legendary shield mastery because I have epic past lifes providing me PRR. I was putting that in for people without the past lifes since the enemies in Amarath hit so hard and not everyone has 36 PRR available from past lifes.

Without a buckler, legendary shield mastery or any past lifes the PRR is 116 and MRR is 131 with this build. This gives 53.5% damage reduction instead of 57.6% (136 PRR) which is good for eAmarath. The shadow guardian upgrade from the Shadow Dragonplate armor on top of the PRR helps quite a bit.

I updated the build to include more conjuration focus for a slightly better Evards. The other option would be toughess/epic toughness, but it would require dropping down int for a drow + a good tome. A human or bladeforged can pull this off with a smaller tome.

I sincerely apologize if you took shield mastery and improved shield mastery and aren't getting any benefit from it. I somehow missed that change.

[Trillea]

You keep pushing Empyrian Magic, but how are you building its stacks? I see no light or fire spells (eldritch blast doesn't cause stacks to build AFAIK unless in aura mode).

Am I missing something obvious here?

[Klixen]

If you haven't already seen this, a change is coming in U27:

https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthrea...ts#post5652879

While I don't think this change is needed or even a good idea, it does end all debate about whether it's better to overweight tainted scholar vs. enlightened spirit.

I find self healing sufficient with mass cure moderate SLA and cocoon and never felt I needed shining through anyhow.

The big change is that spirit blast and eldrtich burst will be scaling to 120% spellpower to 150% spellpower. This is definitely a hit, but it's worse for people using tier 5 enlightened spirit instead of tainted scholar. Voice your approval or displeasure using the link above if you have a strong opinion either way.

Tainted Scholar gives 10% crit damage, 1d6 extra damage to eldritch blast and eldritch ball is an aoe eldritch blast that can be targeted from a distance and still scales with 150% spellpower. It has a cooldown of 6 seconds. Spirit Blast gives an extra 10d6 light damage to just the spirit blast and scales with 120% spellpower and has an 8 second cooldown. While spirit blast is still the king of warlock aoe, I think tainted scholar is definitely the better choice now. I always preferred tainted scholar, although it was a highly questionable choice because of how good spirit blast +30 spellpower was prior to the upcoming change.

I'll take 10% crit damage on everything and 1d6 on all eldritch blast over a slightly better burst with spirit blast. The 2 second shorter cooldown , 1d6 eldritch blast damage, 3 DC, 10% crit damage and ability to use eldritch ball from a longer distance was always something I valued. Now it's the clear choice... at least for me lol

Please post your opinions using the link above about the planned change if you have an opinion about it.

It's not 10% more crit damage, it's 30% (well, not 30% added but the extra crit damage goes from 30% to 60% with capstone).

Since you're blasting, I think you may be missing two very important enhancements - 4th core in ES and the Spiritual Retribution - those two together are 6d6 light (scaled by whatever your EB stance is) - that's almost 50% of your EB base damage at 20 warlock. Didn't notice your gear options, but fit in a Lantern Ring for another 3d6 light on each hit if you haven't done so already