Pure Casting Warlock DC Eld Blast Build

[slarden]

Quick Summary of Changes from U48 to U48.4

• The build didn't change much from U48 to U48.4 but since I received a question in chat I thought it would be beneficial to update the build to be current. Here is what changed from U48 to present
• Festive Charisma augment was added which is a straight-up upgrade that fits into the build perfectly with no gear swaps
• Magewright set was adjusted twice. Current set bonus is giving +4 stat bonus and +4 DC consistently on gear description, buff bar and in actual bonus given.
• Enhancement spellpower has been removed which hurts this build more than the other 2 builds.
• Epic Eldritch Blast and Epic Arcane Eldritch Blast feats have been upgraded from 3d6 base dice and 4d6 base dice to 7d6 base dice and 6d4 pact dice. Both feats are already included so it's a net increase of 6d4 pact dice which offsets the loss of the enhancement spellpower belt.

Build:
This is the 3rd of 3 updated U48 builds. Here are the other 2:

Dragonborn Max DC SE/TS Build for 10 Skull

Bladeforged Solo Mid-Skull SE/TS Build

This build tries to strike a balance between defenses, dps and dc as soloing difficult content requires this. After several nerfs I avoided Enlightened Spirit, but it's become much more effective lately due to crit, spellpower and other stat inflation making weaknesses in the tree less impactful while the benefits are arguably more impactful as enemies continue to hit harder - causing PRR, hit points and more self healing to be more highly valued.

Compared to the Bladeforged build the DCs are lower, there are fewer instakill options, but AOE DPS is higher. Single-target DPS is decent enough for soloing mid-skulls and defenses and self-healing are both very very solid. Defenses and self-healing are better than the other 2 options as the build benefits from a 40% hit point boost, high prr/mrr and multiple self healing options including temporary hit points which aren't subject to reaper penalties. If you want to breeze through R4 solo fast without ever dying this is the build - it's also very simple to play.

Overall this build doesn't translate as well to R10 as the other 2 builds, but I would still be comfortable bring this build to a Ravenloft R10 or with a group I was familiar with. [Added on 4/14/2021 - My guildy Kronovere is running this build right now with a few minor variations. We are 3-manning R8s at 30 with myself as a melee tank, kronovere running this build and another guildy running ranger 20 bow deepwood sniper with heavy aa splash. The build is performing great in R8 and based on past experience going from 3-man R8 to full-party R10 isn't a big deal as long as you have the right amount of debuffing and roles. So this build will perform fine in R10 and the cc DCs are working fine. Kronovere is using clouded dreams as ring vs. spinneret and does have many past lifes and reaper points]

One specific goal I had with this build was to minimize the use of raid items compared to the other build. I did include the Augment created with Litany of the Dead which comes from an older/easier raid and raid filigree which requires gaining threads. You can get raid threads simply by soloing tempest spine without a group. You can also easily complete defiler of the just, hound of xoriat, mark of death, fire on thunderpeak with 1 or 2 more people to help you to get raid threads if you don't enjoy large groups.

Compared to the other builds, this build is more suitable to a character without many past lifes as the DC is less important.

RACE: Tiefling

Starting Stats
Str: 8
Dex: 8
Wis: 8
Con: 16
Int: 16
Char: 20 (All level ups)

PACT: Fiend. This is due to the ability to strip fire immunity with tiefling, synergies with tiefling and the extra instant kill ability that works on many enemies that can't otherwise be instakilled.

This build will use utterdark blast as the default stance due to better spellpower and better crit chance - especially when legendary resplendent fury orb is used.

GEAR

Goggles: Legendary Collective Sight - Charisma 21, Insightful Charisma 10, Quality Resistance 4
Helm: Legendary Crown of Snow - Permanent Fire Shield Cold, Paragon Cerulean Wave, Spell Focus Mastery 7, Insightful Spell Focus Mastery 4
Necklace: Legendary Pendant of Bottled Moonlight - Spell Penetration 9, Insightful Spell Penetration 5, Enchanting Death 3, Overwhelming Despair
Trinket: Slavers Crafted - Sheltering 45 (for MRR), Resistance 14, Heal 22, Quality Charisma 4
Cloak: Legendary Hallowed Trail - Radiance 214, Radiance Lore 31, Evocation Focus 9, Quality Spell Penetration 3
Belt: Legendary Burnscar Sash - Combustion and Fire Lore
Ring 1:Legendary Spinneret - Spell Lore 15, Quality Potency 32, Quality Spell Focus Mastery 2 (or upgrade to Clouded Dreams if you have raid runes from Killing Time)
Gloves: The Prince's Gauntlet - Constitution 22, 93 Healing and Repair Amp, Quality Resistance 4, Quality Sheltering 15
Boots: Legendary Deepsnow Boots - Insightful Constitution 10, Quality Constitution 5, Freedom of Movement, Fort Save 17
Ring 2: Legendary Ring of Winter - Ice Lore 31, Glaciation 214, Kinetic Lore 31, Impulse 214
Bracers: Legendary Hallowed Castigators - Devotion 214, Healing Lore 31, Insightful Sheltering 27
Armor: Legendary Blessed Vestments - Fortification 214, Physical Sheltering 54, Healing Amp 85, False Life 81

Main Weapon: The Legendary Queen's Sceptre - Potency 154, Insightful Potency 77, Spellsight 22, Insightful Spellsight 11
Off-hand Weapon: Legendary Resplendent Fury - Insightful Radiance 107, Insightful Radiance Lore 18 (swap weapon EE skyvault shield when more defenses are needed - provided 15 PRR/MRR with master's touch and reduces evadable magic damage by 50%)

Depending on you want more dps or more DC you can swap between these two off-hands.

Set Bonuses
- Legendary Flamecleansed Fury: +4 artifact bonus to Charisma, Intelligence and Wisdom, +3 artifact bonus to DC, +50 Artifact Bonus to Fire, Force, Light and Positive, 10% Artifact Bonus to Fire, Force, Light and Positive Crit Chance
- The 4-piece Winter set: 25 PRR, +15 stacking healing amp and 20% hp bonus.
- 2-piece Summer Set: 25 MRR

FILIGREE
Main Weapon
- Otto's Irrevocable Power: Charisma (Rare) - +1 Charisma, +2 MRR
- Otto's Irrevocable Power: Constitution (Rare) - +1 Constitution, +2 PRR
- Otto's Irrevocable Power: PRR (Rare) - +3 PRR, +2 MRR
- Otto's Irrevocable Power: Spell Failure Reduction (Rare) - -10% Spell Failure, +2 MRR
- Eye of the Beholder: Charisma (Rare) - +1 Charisma, +2 MRR
- Eye of the Beholder: Spellpower (Rare) - +10 Universal Spellpower
- Eye of the Beholder: MRR (Rare) - +3 MRR, +2 PRR
- To Hell and Back / Embraced By Light: Charisma (Rare) - +2 Charisma, +4MRR
- Sactified Fervor / Reverberation: Charisma (Rare) - +2 Charisma, +4 MRR
Artifact
- To Hell and Back / Embraced By Light: Charisma (Rare) - +2 Charisma, +4MRR
- Sactified Fervor / Reverberation: Charisma (Rare) - +2 Charisma, +4 MRR
- Eye of The Beholder: Charisma (Rare) - +1 Charisma, +2 MRR

Set Bonuses
- Otto's Irrevocable Power 4 Piece: +5 MRR, +200 Spell Points, +2 to all DCs
- Eye of the Beholder 4 Piece: +4 Concentration, +1 Spell Penetration, +2 to all DCs
- To Hell and Back 2 Piece: +5 PRR
- Embraced By the Light 2 Piece: +5 Healing Amp
- Sanctified Fervor 2 Piece: +5 Healing Amp
- Reverberation 2 Piece: Melee and Missle Damage (not applicable to this build)

Please note you can't slot the same filigree in a single sentient item, but you can slot the same filigree in different sentient items and both will count toward the set bonus. It's unclear if this is working as intended, but I decided to post it here as this type of information isn't always accessible so I wanted to make sure people know. Be aware that if you take advantage of this it might be necessary to later unslot filigree if SSG changes the way this works.

FEATS:

1) Maximize
3) Empower
6) Completionist (Or Enlarge but enlarge isn't really needed for this build)
9) Past Life Wizard
12) Spell Focus Conjuration
15) Quicken
18) Force of Personality
21) Epic Eldritch Blast
24) Embolden
26) Epic Arcane Eldritch Blast
27) Ruin
28) Mass Frog (because it works on some things well even with a lower dc - esp undead and constructs)
29) Arcane Pulse
30) Greater Ruin
30) Scion of the Plane of Fire

ENHANCEMENTS (14 bonus racial + 1 bonus universal point)

Tiefling (18)
Cores
- Bloodhunt 1
- Charisma
- Bloodhunt 2
- Charisma
- Bloodhunt 3
Tier 1
- Innate Protection x1
Tier 2
- Infernal Defense x3
Tier 3
- Ash x 3
- Incineration
Tier 4
- Improved Scorch
- Incineration

Enlightened Spirit (41)
Cores
- Eldritch Aura
- Aura of Courage
- Shape Vestments
- Aura of Menace
- Celestial Spirit
- Ultimate Enlightenment
Tier 1
- Resilience of Body x2
- Spiritual Defense x3
Tier 2
- Power of Enlightement x3
- Spiritual Bastion x3
Tier 3
- Eldritch Burst x 3
- Spiritual Ward x3
- Power of Enlightenment: Light x3
- Charisma
Tier 4
- Medium Armor Proficiency
- Spiritual Retribution x3
- Brilliance
- Charisma
Tier 5
- Sprit Blast x3
- Shining Through

Tainted Scholar (26)
Core
- Tainted Spellcasting
- Tainted Lore
- Stanch
- Tainted Lore 2
Tier 1
- Feigned Health x 3
- Strong Pact
Tier 2
- Utterdark Blast (default for this build)
- Stunning Blast x 3
- Strong Pact
Tier 3
- Faltering Blast
- Strong Pact
- Charisma
Tier 4
- Penetrating Blast (for golems, arcane oozes and other things resistant to force)
- Strong Pact

Feydark Illusionist (11)
Cores
- Find Familiar
- Charisma
- Greater Color Spray
Tier 1
- Feydark Explorer x1
- Study the Arcane x3
Tier 2
- Reality Bulwark x 1
- You've Got My Back

Exalted Angel
Core
- Celestial Destiny
- Mass Cure Moderate Wounds
- Angelic Presence
- Astral Vibrance
- Transcendental Magic
- Ascendance
Tier 1
- Radiant Power x3
- Endless Faith x3
Tier 2
- Charisma
Tier 3
- Piercing Spellcraft x3
- Healing Amp x3
- Charisma
Tier 4
- Charisma
Tier 5
- Leap of Faith
- Charisma
Tier 6
- Divine Wrath
- Charisma

EPIC DESTINY TWISTS
Energy Burst - Fire
Empyrean Magic
Conjuration Specialist (Magister)
Rejuvenation Cocoon
Interrogation

NOTE: I have been playing more in draconic incarnation more lately despite the lower DC. I am likely to switch this build to be be primarily in draconic incarnation rather than exalted angel, although exalted angel provides better self-healing.

Charisma
Start: 20
Level Ups: 7
Tome: 8
Completionist: 2
Racial Completionist: 2
Racial Past Lifes: 3
Enhancement Bonus: 21
Insightful Bonus: 10
Exceptional Bonus: 1
Quality Bonus: 4
Profane Bonus: 2 (Augment)
Artifact Bonus: 4
Festive: 2
Sentient Weapon Filigree: 11
Reaper Bonus: 2
Racial Enhancements: 2
Soul Eater Enhancements: 2
Tainted Scholar Enhancements: 1
Feydark Illusionist Enhancement: 1
Enlightened Spirit Capstone: 2
Reaper: 5
Epic Destiny: 6
Ship Buffs: 2
Yugo Potions: 2
Remnant Potions: 2
Total Charisma: 126

Conjuration DC
Base: 10
Spell Level: 6 (I don't have heighten so depends on spell level)
Charisma Bonus: 58
Conjuration Focus Feats: 1
Embolden: 2
Scion of the Plane of Fire: 0
Item- Enhancement Bonus: 7
Item- Insightful Bonus: 4
Item- Quality Bonus: 2
Item- Augment Bonus: 2
Item- Artifact: 4
Item: Sentient Bonus: 4
Item: Profane Bonus: 0
Item: Sacred Bonus: 0
Enhancements - Reaper: 4
Exalted Angel Core: 3
Conjuration Specialist Twist (Magister): 3
Ship Buffs: 1
Total Conjuration DC: 114

Even with this lower DC evards and web are very successful. The combination of evards + greater color spray gets most things with this DC.

You still have finger of death, wail of the banshee and flesh to stone for low fort enemies, mass hold, hurl through hell and greater color spray for lower will enemies.

Available DC Buffs:
- Reaper potency (+3 DC)
- Tainted spellcasting (+2 DC)

Other spell schools will be slightly less due to the net effect of differences with magister, gear and past lifes. Finger of Death is still quite effective on low fortitude save enemies.

Spell Penetration:
Warlock Levels: 20
Feat: Past Life Wizard and Favored Soul: 9
Item: Enhancement Bonus: 9
Item: Insightful Bonus: 5
Item: Quality Bonus: 3
Enhancement Tree: Tainted Scholar: 2
Enhancement Tree: Reaper: 5
Legendary Pendant of Bottled Moonlight (Necromancy and Enchantment Only): 3
Piercing Spellcraft: 3
Ship Buff: 1
Eye of the Beholder Set: 1
Total: 58-61

This is a workable # considering I made very little investment since I have so many other tools against spell-resistant enemies - web, greater color spray, straight-up blowing things up with damage, etc.

Physical Resistance Rating

Medium Armor: 30
Large Shield: 10
Enhancement Bonus: 54
Insightful Bonus: 27
Quality Bonus: 15
Artifact Bonus: 25
Reaper Enhancement Tree: 24
Past Lifes: 45
Filigree: 7
Filigree Sets: 5
Resilience of Body: 4
Spiritual Bastion: 13
Mythic Bonuses: 15
Feydark Illusionist: You've Got My Back: 10
Total: 284

Magical Resistance Rating

Large Shield: 10
Enhancement Bonus: 45
Insightful Bonus: 27
Quality Bonus: 15
Artifact Bonus: 25
Reaper Enhancement Tree: 3
Past Lifes: 18
Filigree: 26
Filigree Sets: 5
Tiefling Enhancement Tree: 6
Shape Vestments: 10
Spiritual Ward: 13
Mythic Bonuses: 15
Paragon's Aegis x 5: 25
Feydark Illusionist: You've Got My Back: 10
Total: 253

Healing Amplification
Base: 100
Price's Gauntlet: 93
Past Life Paladin: 30
Artifact Bonus: 15
Ancient Blessings: 15
Filigree Set Bonuses: 10
Exalted Angel: 20
Total: 283

Spell Critical Fire
Magical Training: 5
Empyrean Magic: 10
Enhancement Bonus: 29
Artifact Bonus: 10
Tiefling: 8
Interrogation: 1
Energy Criticals: 9
Total: 72% (82% with clouded dreams)

Spell Critical Light, Force, Positive
Magical Training: 5
Empyrean Magic: 10
Enhancement Bonus: 32
Artifact Bonus: 10
Insight Bonus: 18
Tiefling: 4
Interrogation: 1
Total: 80%

Spellpower - Fire
Enhancement Bonus: 202
Insightful Bonus: 77
Quality Bonus: 32
Artifact Bonus: 50
Implement Bonus: 29
Filigree: 10
Mythic and Reaper Bonuses: 15
Epic Power: 60
Scion of the Plane of Fire: 40
Tainted Spellcasting Passive: 20
Reaper Tree: 48
Feydark Illusionist: 6
Tiefling Cores: 35
Power of Enlightenment: 12
Ultimate Enlightenment: 10
Empyrean Magic: 20
Interrogation: 5
Tome: 4
Ship Buffs: 15
Spellcraft: 112
Total: 802 before metamagic and self buffs

Spellpower - Light
Equipment Bonus: 214
Enhancement Bonus: 0
Insightful Bonus: 107
Quality Bonus: 32
Artifact Bonus: 50
Implement Bonus: 29
Filigree: 10
Mythic and Reaper Bonuses: 15
Epic Power: 60
Scion of the Plane of Fire: 30
Tainted Spellcasting Passive: 20
Reaper Tree: 48
Feydark Illusionist: 6
Tiefling Cores: 0
Power of Enlightenment: 42
Ultimate Enlightenment: 30
Epic Destiny - Radiant Spellpower: 30
Empyrean Magic: 20
Morninglord Past Life Stance: 30
Interrogation: 5
Tome: 4
Ship Buffs: 15
Spellcraft: 112
Total: 909

Spellpower - Force and Positive
Equipment Bonus: 214
Enhancement Bonus: 0
Insightful Bonus: 77
Quality Bonus: 32
Artifact Bonus: 50
Implement Bonus: 29
Filigree: 10
Mythic and Reaper Bonuses: 15
Epic Power: 60
Scion of the Plane of Fire: 30
Tainted Spellcasting Passive: 20
Reaper Tree: 48
Feydark Illusionist: 6
Tiefling Cores: 0
Power of Enlightenment: 12
Ultimate Enlightenment: 10
Empyrean Magic: 20
Interrogation: 5
Tome: 4
Ship Buffs: 15
Spellcraft: 112
Total: 769 before metamagic and self buffs

Other spellpower boosts
- Maximize and Empower metamagic
- Reaper Power clicky
- Tainted Spellcasting clicky
- Various Potions

Hit Point Multiplier Bonuses:
Ultimate Enlightenment Competence Bonus: 20%
Winter Set Bonus: 20%

[slarden]

Considering we've only had point releases since U48 there have been quite a few significant changes.

1) The festive charisma augment from the new winter event is a straight-up upgrade and every warlock should slot it. If you missed the event the augments are unbound so you can trade for those or buy off the ASAH.

2) The Magewright set is now giving the stated +4 DC bonus.

3) Enhancement spellpower has been removed. This impacts builds using the ravenloft belts the most with a reduction of 202 spellpower. Builds using LGS salt/ooze had tier 1 enhancement 150 cold , Tier 2 something else for weapon bonus, Tier 3 exceptional 37 cold. Since quality spellpower is tougher to slot on a charisma build vs int build swapping Salt/ooze to Tier 1 something else for weapon bonus, Tier 2 Quality 37 cold and Tier 3 exceptional 37 cold it's only a 113 net loss in spellpower instead of 150 spellpower loss.

4) The Epic Eldritch Blast feat has been improved from 3d6 base dice to 7d6 base dice at level 30. The Epic Arcane Eldritch Blast feat has been changed from 4d6 base dice to 6d4 pact dice. The bad news is you really need to take both feats at 30 to have reasonable dps. The good news is that if you take both feats the change increases your dps in all cases even with the loss of the belt.

Of the 3 builds the changes are most helpful on the bladeforged mid-skull solo build which adds 3d6 base damage + 6d4 pact damage while only losing 113 cold spellpower on bosses. Alternatively it frees me up to use Ash in my offhand for boss fights instead of ooze and the debuffing is likely more impactful than the additional cold spellpower from ooze, but I haven't fully tested it.

All in all I am thankful the devs responded to player concerns and gave warlock a very modest dps bump to make up for the loss of the belt. I updated all 3 builds since there was enough critical mass of changes to warrant a quick update.

[Maelodic]

Tiefling Scoundrel Option
My guildy Kronovere runs a build similar to this but with tiefling scoundrel and fey pact. This requires a +1 heart to remove the bard level, but is a very effective option as it bases sonic spellpower on the higher of sonic and fire- so your sonic spells benefit from things like the burnscar sash. Ash imprisonment is also a very effective spell that works like flesh to stone but with a higher dc potential and tiefling scoundrel provides boosts to enchantment dc.

Would you consider worth looking at if you don't have much racial AP or do you feel like the trade off would be too great?

[slarden]

Would you consider worth looking at if you don't have much racial AP or do you feel like the trade off would be too great?

This build was primarily to use the fire ravenloft belt to gain 200 sonic spellpower since there was no enhancement bonus for sonic available. Now that enhancement spellpower is gone there isn't a compelling enough reason to do this. It's better to go straight tiefling for the crit bonus.

I find more value out of the feydark illusionist tree vs. racial trees. I think 41 in soul eater (or 41 in ES if you prefer that), 26 in tainted scholar and 13 in feydark illusionist (gives 2 charisma) is the way I would go with only 80 AP, but it depends alot playstyle. I value locking up mobs with cheap aoe.

I view tainted lore (for dps) and penetrating blast (to get around damage reduction) as absolute musts for warlock. I can't think of anything more painfully slow than taking down a red named iron golem without penetrating blast.

I removed that option since it's a little outdated now. Tiefling Scoundrel is still useful if you want to use sonic with fire energy burst, but it seems like too small of a benefit to justify a lesser +1. Ash imprisonment is a really good ability so it would still make a great warlock. Sonic with Fatesinger is a really cool option - in addition to the great bound fate and grim fate debuffs you have the core granduer which can make enemies (esp bosses) up to 50% more vulnerable to sonic.

At some point I want to play around with a fey warlock in fatesinger more and tiefling scoundrel may end being the best race for that build.

[Maelodic]

This build was primarily to use the fire ravenloft belt to gain 200 sonic spellpower since there was no enhancement bonus for sonic available. Now that enhancement spellpower is gone there isn't a compelling enough reason to do this. It's better to go straight tiefling for the crit bonus.

I find more value out of the feydark illusionist tree vs. racial trees. I think 41 in soul eater (or 41 in ES if you prefer that), 26 in tainted scholar and 13 in feydark illusionist (gives 2 charisma) is the way I would go with only 80 AP, but it depends alot playstyle. I value locking up mobs with cheap aoe.

I view tainted lore (for dps) and penetrating blast (to get around damage reduction) as absolute musts for warlock. I can't think of anything more painfully slow than taking down a red named iron golem without penetrating blast.

I removed that option since it's a little outdated now. Tiefling Scoundrel is still useful if you want to use sonic with fire energy burst, but it seems like too small of a benefit to justify a lesser +1. Ash imprisonment is a really good ability so it would still make a great warlock. Sonic with Fatesinger is a really cool option - in addition to the great bound fate and grim fate debuffs you have the core granduer which can make enemies (esp bosses) up to 50% more vulnerable to sonic.

At some point I want to play around with a fey warlock in fatesinger more and tiefling scoundrel may end being the best race for that build.

Ash Imprisonment is real good and the fatesinger bits is a huge boost to DPS for a blaster - I've been really interested in playing around with it for a while. I might try it out next life and will report back if I do.

[slarden]

Ash Imprisonment is real good and the fatesinger bits is a huge boost to DPS for a blaster - I've been really interested in playing around with it for a while. I might try it out next life and will report back if I do.

That is awesome! I think it will work out really well and assuming it does you should post the build separately in the forums as I think many in the community would benefit from it. I haven't seen a fatesinger fey build posted yet. Fatesinger gives quite a boost to spellpower.

[Maelodic]

That is awesome! I think it will work out really well and assuming it does you should post the build separately in the forums as I think many in the community would benefit from it. I haven't seen a fatesinger fey build posted yet. Fatesinger gives quite a boost to spellpower.

Yeahhhh I'll workshop it a bit. My first warlock build was fey because I love fey - I've just been using a build that de-emphasizes the need to get good DCs but as I acquire more gear I've been eyeballing a TS fey build for a while.

[Maelodic]

Yeahhhh I'll workshop it a bit.

Did some testing on Lama since that conveniently became available while I was thinking about this.

Feylock was good regardless because Dark Delerium and Otto's Irresistable Dance are both really great abilities. Fatesinger giving auto enlarge on both abilities is super nice. The reflex save is still super annoying but with how easy it is to gear for a bunch of different DCs now I don't think it's a huge issue.

I think the damage here is the best a warlock can get as far as blasting goes. It was most notable on bosses as you can pretty easily maintain max resonance stacks as long as you're spamming wave. Tainted Scholar is still inferior to Soul Eater here despite the great control power of mass confusion - wave is too good for the application of harmonic resonance and obviously a second and third "pls die now" button is wonderful.

Something that I found shockingly effective is SE T5s with TS Capstone just for straight damage. The difference is pretty stark and while there's a pretty big sacrifice for that as far as AP goes, it's super tempting. That split is what I'm running on live right now because I just can't stop loving the big numbers but I also love feeling like FoD is always available and eldritch wave is a great nuke. It's hard to justify not taking GCS from feydark but until I'm running harder content and not steam rolling through epics this has made the most sense.

BOGW and Greater Shout in Fatesinger did prop up CC a lot, I think an evo fatesinger feylock might actually work pretty well with the 39/41 split. Scoundrel with racial AP can use this split and get an extra 35 SP as well as Fiendish Arpeggio which adds to your array of lockdown abilities. Without the split if you use the fire SP thing scoundrel also can still get energy burst/go into draconic for fire stuff without making gearing difficult, which is neat. The scoundrel stuff is super nice but I'm not convinced it's worth going Scoundrel over Dragonborn or Drow for such a build. WIthout the 39/41 split I think that the evo DC in dragonborn or the enchant DC/arcane fluidity/extra spell resistance in drow (all of which you can always get if you have racial AP) might be better.

Fatesinger is wonderful. Aria is great, free enlarge and intensify is great, tons of DCs and CHA is great, harmonic resonance on this build is great, having a second cheap nuke is great. Making the blasts super good definitely makes this really fun and the blasts, wave, and shout all have very similar animations which makes you feel like you're just bombarding everything with eldritch might. There's just so much raw damage and convenience in Fatesinger.


I really enjoyed my time with it. It's definitely me trying to fit a round peg in a square hole, playing a damage focused lock, but I'll definitely eTR into this style and get a bunch of experience with it under my belt - if it feels distinct from other locks and if I determine it's strong enough I'll do a write up on it on the forums. Gotta farm up epic gear because I'm definitely lacking on it so it'll be a while.

Anyway, those are my impressions.

[slarden]

Did some testing on Lama since that conveniently became available while I was thinking about this.

Feylock was good regardless because Dark Delerium and Otto's Irresistable Dance are both really great abilities. Fatesinger giving auto enlarge on both abilities is super nice. The reflex save is still super annoying but with how easy it is to gear for a bunch of different DCs now I don't think it's a huge issue.

I think the damage here is the best a warlock can get as far as blasting goes. It was most notable on bosses as you can pretty easily maintain max resonance stacks as long as you're spamming wave. Tainted Scholar is still inferior to Soul Eater here despite the great control power of mass confusion - wave is too good for the application of harmonic resonance and obviously a second and third "pls die now" button is wonderful.

Something that I found shockingly effective is SE T5s with TS Capstone just for straight damage. The difference is pretty stark and while there's a pretty big sacrifice for that as far as AP goes, it's super tempting. That split is what I'm running on live right now because I just can't stop loving the big numbers but I also love feeling like FoD is always available and eldritch wave is a great nuke. It's hard to justify not taking GCS from feydark but until I'm running harder content and not steam rolling through epics this has made the most sense.

BOGW and Greater Shout in Fatesinger did prop up CC a lot, I think an evo fatesinger feylock might actually work pretty well with the 39/41 split. Scoundrel with racial AP can use this split and get an extra 35 SP as well as Fiendish Arpeggio which adds to your array of lockdown abilities. Without the split if you use the fire SP thing scoundrel also can still get energy burst/go into draconic for fire stuff without making gearing difficult, which is neat. The scoundrel stuff is super nice but I'm not convinced it's worth going Scoundrel over Dragonborn or Drow for such a build. WIthout the 39/41 split I think that the evo DC in dragonborn or the enchant DC/arcane fluidity/extra spell resistance in drow (all of which you can always get if you have racial AP) might be better.

Fatesinger is wonderful. Aria is great, free enlarge and intensify is great, tons of DCs and CHA is great, harmonic resonance on this build is great, having a second cheap nuke is great. Making the blasts super good definitely makes this really fun and the blasts, wave, and shout all have very similar animations which makes you feel like you're just bombarding everything with eldritch might. There's just so much raw damage and convenience in Fatesinger.


I really enjoyed my time with it. It's definitely me trying to fit a round peg in a square hole, playing a damage focused lock, but I'll definitely eTR into this style and get a bunch of experience with it under my belt - if it feels distinct from other locks and if I determine it's strong enough I'll do a write up on it on the forums. Gotta farm up epic gear because I'm definitely lacking on it so it'll be a while.

Anyway, those are my impressions.

This is fantastic information! Yes I was thinking with bound fate, the 50% sonic vulnerability and all the buffs to spellpower fatesinger would be a super optimal destiny for dps and raid debuffing. Bound/grim fate, devour the soul and strickened form/soul with an off-hand lgs debuffer(s) would be very beneficial. Thanks for the update - it sounds super promising.

[Maelodic]

This is fantastic information! Yes I was thinking with bound fate, the 50% sonic vulnerability and all the buffs to spellpower fatesinger would be a super optimal destiny for dps and raid debuffing. Bound/grim fate, devour the soul and strickened form/soul with an off-hand lgs debuffer(s) would be very beneficial. Thanks for the update - it sounds super promising.

Yeah. Icelock in Draconic does more damage - but I'm actually getting pretty similar boss times between the two and Fatesinger obviously provides a significant amount of debuffing. Feylock focuses a bit more on blasting as well which ends up applying more vulnerability, which is good. If you're playing DPS lock and soloing I think icelock is still best for easier content just because steamrolling is strong. Icelock in magister doesn't do as much damage as feylock in fatesinger but that's to be expected.

There's going to be a bit of challenge in gearing. There's not particularly synergistic sources of resonance in recent patches. I'll probably run a Resonance/Impulse U49 quarterstaff and legendary dusk lenses with slavers gear picking up the radiance SP part, and then just feywild stuff. I'm still farming out the gear I need to be able to run Feywild/Sharn on LE to farm gear so it'll be some time. Gonna be on the eTR train for a bit while I do that.

[slarden]

I think icelock is still best for easier content just because steamrolling is strong. Icelock in magister doesn't do as much damage as feylock in fatesinger but that's to be expected.

Agreed, my reason for running in magister is that the higher dc necromancy spells allow me to clear the dungeon faster in magister than I can clear it in exalted angel or draconic. Not because of dps, but because necro spells allow me to deal with outliers more effectively.

The one dps ability overlooked in magister is arcane tempest which does considerable aoe damage over time and synergizes well tentacles since it has the same targeting mechanism. I drop an arcane tempest over the tentacles and mobs just melt. The 35% crit damage boost ends up being approximately a 10% dps increase overall so I am losing that against bosses, but my assessment is 5-6 seconds more in boss fights is a good trade-off - others have different views on that.

The damage over time with arcane tempest is actually more than greater ruin does to a single target.

As far as gear feywild dreamer set is quite nice for bladeforged which is part of the reason I wanted to give it a try with an etr. The docent has 15% exceptional lore and 30 exceptional spellpower and the set bonus is 10% artifact lore and 50 artifact spellpower. The set doesn't work as well for a fleshy because the light armor is missing the exceptional bonuses and there is no medium armor option. I am not able to survive running around in a robe with the warlock playstyle. I am currently playing carceri storm bladeforged warlock.

[Maelodic]

Agreed, my reason for running in magister is that the higher dc necromancy spells allow me to clear the dungeon faster in magister than I can clear it in exalted angel or draconic. Not because of dps, but because necro spells allow me to deal with outliers more effectively.

The one dps ability overlooked in magister is arcane tempest which does considerable aoe damage over time and synergizes well tentacles since it has the same targeting mechanism. I drop an arcane tempest over the tentacles and mobs just melt. The 35% crit damage boost ends up being approximately a 10% dps increase overall so I am losing that against bosses, but my assessment is 5-6 seconds more in boss fights is a good trade-off - others have different views on that.

The damage over time with arcane tempest is actually more than greater ruin does to a single target.

As far as gear feywild dreamer set is quite nice for bladeforged which is part of the reason I wanted to give it a try with an etr. The docent has 15% exceptional lore and 30 exceptional spellpower and the set bonus is 10% artifact lore and 50 artifact spellpower. The set doesn't work as well for a fleshy because the light armor is missing the exceptional bonuses and there is no medium armor option. I am not able to survive running around in a robe with the warlock playstyle. I am currently playing carceri storm bladeforged warlock.

Yeah the feywild dreamer set is nice - honestly the simplicity of gearing with that set is super tempting even as a fleshy. There's a lot of damage on the table there.

I love Arcane Tempest, and I really like magister a lot too. I'm still getting the hang of warlock in epics, and I definitely thing you've solved them as much as they can be solved but I'm excited to try this thing out.

[Maelodic]

Yeah the feywild dreamer set is nice - honestly the simplicity of gearing with that set is super tempting even as a fleshy. There's a lot of damage on the table there.

I love Arcane Tempest, and I really like magister a lot too. I'm still getting the hang of warlock in epics, and I definitely thing you've solved them as much as they can be solved but I'm excited to try this thing out.

This is what I was thinking for an endgame equipment set - thoughts?

Weapon Fusable Scepter of Impulse (U49, Upcoming) - Impulse 214 | Impulse Lore 31 | Insightful Impulse 107 | Evocation Focus 9
Offhand Hyrsam's Fiddle - Insightful Resonance 115 | Quality Resonance 57 | Sounding | Good Luck 5
Swap LGS Triple Positive - Salt | Dust | Ash | Ooze
Armor Legendary Feyweave Robe - Fortification 214 | PRR 54 | Exceptional Potency 30 | Exceptional Spell Lore 15
Cloak Legendary Gossamer Weave - Enchant 9 | Illusion 9 | Spell Reistance 47 | Spell Penetration 9 | Dodge 12 (slotted)
Gloves Legendary Delicate Thimbletips - Conjuration 9 | Magical Efficiency 10 | Insightful Spell Penetration 5 | Mystic Diversion 33
Wrists Legendary Green Dragonscale Bracers - Power Store | Insightful Resistance 8 | Vitality 72 | Poison Resist 81
Eyes Legendary Collective Sight (CON/CHA Upgrade) - CON 21 | Insightful CHA 10 | Quality Resistance 4
Helm Legendary Pansophic Circlet - Potency 131 | Insightful Potency 65 | Quality Potency 15 | Magical Efficiency 10
Neck Legendary Amber Pendant - Spell Focus Mastery 7 | Insightful Spell Focus Mastery 4 | Quality Necromancy Focus 2 | Insightful Sheltering 27
Belt Legendary Black Satin Waist (CHA Upgrade) - Quality CHA 5 | Spell Penetration 9 | Quality Spell Focus Mastery 2 | Spell Resistance 47
Boots Legendary Deepsnow Boots - Freedom of Movement | Insightful CON 10 | Quality CON 5 | Fortitude 17
Ring 1 Slavers Five Rings - Wizardry 371 | Radiance Lore 27 | Perform 22 | Quality MRR 11
Ring 2 Slavers Five Rings - False Life 68 | Radiance 185 | Spellsight 22 | Quality PRR 11
Trinket Bell of Warding - Resonance 208 | Sonic Lore 30 | CHA 20 | MRR 52

Set Legendary Feywild Dreamer - Artifact Spell Power (Sonic/Force/Light/Acid) 50 | Artifact Spell Lore 10 | Artifact CHA 4 | Artifact Spell Focus 3
Set Emminence of Winter (2pc) - Artifact PRR 25
Set Emminence of Autumn (2pc) - Artifact Universal Spell Power 50

[tpbtoc]

@slarden, what spells do you select?

[slarden]

@slarden, what spells do you select?

This is what I take:

Level 1
- False Life at low levels and swap out for master's touch at higher levels (False life for hp stacking with feigned health - really nice at low levels. Master's touch for skyvault swap for some fights.)
- Shield ( I also use nightshield clicky for MRR boost from feydark illusionist)
- Feather Fall is auto-granted from tainted scholar

Level 2
- Blur
- Sleet Storm
- Web auto-granted from tainted scholar

Level 3
- Displacement
- Dimension Door
- Crushing Despair auto-granted from tainted scholar

Level 4
- Evard's Black Tentacles
- Hold Monster initially then I swap to flesh to stone once I have mass Hold
- Deathward auto-granted from tainted scholar

Level 5
- Finger of Death
- Death to Undeath initially but I swap to Globe of Invulnerability at 30 for quests like Make Believe and Blown Deadline where it makes the end fights so much easier.

Level 6
- Wail of the Banshee
- Mass Hold Monster

With sleet storm you need make sure your party has FOM otherwise you don't want to use it. It's fairly common that everyone has fom at 30 or someone can cast it. I am running carceri storm and the combination of tentacles, sleet storm, ice storm (Carceri storm auto grant) + greater color spray with an LGS SALT off-hand literally makes any non-red name fight easy through R6 solo (Dooms add a tougher dimension because they are red-named and warlock dps isn't spectacular). Sometimes I throw a mass hold in for good measure esp when there are reapers not stopped by greater color spray. Whatever isn't locked down with greater color spray and tentacles is moving at 95% speed reduction and if one monster somehow isn't I instakill it.

Throwing Arcane tempest over the cc'd mobs and energy burst along with damage from tentacles takes down enemies fairly fast through R6 at least. On higher skulls in a party its also very effective but a little more teamwork is required - soloing above that is tough for this build due to the healing penalty and high reaper random madness. Anything not killed in the kill zone cna be dealt with using instakill or absolute zero.

For epic levels I take arcane pulse, ruin and greater ruin for boss fights - but only use arcane pulse and greater ruin. Greater Ruin is probably not worth it if you are in a group with heavy debuffing because it doesn't benefit from debuffing at all. For soloing I find it useful to speed up boss fights, sometimes to kill a reaper or champ faster and against enemies like golems that take very little damage from pact element.

[tpbtoc]

This is what I take:

Level 1
- False Life at low levels and swap out for master's touch at higher levels (False life for hp stacking with feigned health - really nice at low levels. Master's touch for skyvault swap for some fights.)
- Shield ( I also use nightshield clicky for MRR boost from feydark illusionist)
- Feather Fall is auto-granted from tainted scholar

Level 2
- Blur
- Sleet Storm
- Web auto-granted from tainted scholar

Level 3
- Displacement
- Dimension Door
- Crushing Despair auto-granted from tainted scholar

Level 4
- Evard's Black Tentacles
- Hold Monster initially then I swap to flesh to stone once I have mass Hold
- Deathward auto-granted from tainted scholar

Level 5
- Finger of Death
- Death to Undeath initially but I swap to Globe of Invulnerability at 30 for quests like Make Believe and Blown Deadline where it makes the end fights so much easier.

Level 6
- Wail of the Banshee
- Mass Hold Monster

With sleet storm you need make sure your party has FOM otherwise you don't want to use it. It's fairly common that everyone has fom at 30 or someone can cast it. I am running carceri storm and the combination of tentacles, sleet storm, ice storm (Carceri storm auto grant) + greater color spray with an LGS SALT off-hand literally makes any non-red name fight easy through R6 solo (Dooms add a tougher dimension because they are red-named and warlock dps isn't spectacular). Sometimes I throw a mass hold in for good measure esp when there are reapers not stopped by greater color spray. Whatever isn't locked down with greater color spray and tentacles is moving at 95% speed reduction and if one monster somehow isn't I instakill it.

Throwing Arcane tempest over the cc'd mobs and energy burst along with damage from tentacles takes down enemies fairly fast through R6 at least. On higher skulls in a party its also very effective but a little more teamwork is required - soloing above that is tough for this build due to the healing penalty and high reaper random madness. Anything not killed in the kill zone cna be dealt with using instakill or absolute zero.

For epic levels I take arcane pulse, ruin and greater ruin for boss fights - but only use arcane pulse and greater ruin. Greater Ruin is probably not worth it if you are in a group with heavy debuffing because it doesn't benefit from debuffing at all. For soloing I find it useful to speed up boss fights, sometimes to kill a reaper or champ faster and against enemies like golems that take very little damage from pact element.

Awesome! Thanks for the detailed explanation =)

I will try the Bladeforged version soon. Is the gear the same as you posted even after update 49? I have almost everything, just missing a couple of items.

[slarden]

Awesome! Thanks for the detailed explanation =)

I will try the Bladeforged version soon. Is the gear the same as you posted even after update 49? I have almost everything, just missing a couple of items.

Yes, the new charisma artifact goggles are very compelling but I haven't made any changes since I like the setup with the prince's gauntlets for 4-piece winter and 2-piece summer.

[slarden]

Please keep in mind these changes aren't final yet, but I did a quick analysis of how these changes impact the warlock build here: U50 Preview 2: Endgame Itemization Adjustments (ddo.com)

First and foremost, you can fully expect to make a full or near-full gear swap when U50 hits.

For example there were many options for universal DC prior to U50 that provided +7 spell focus mastery and +4 insightful spell focus mastery. I currently use legendary crown of snow. Most of those items are changing to +4 spell focus mastery and +2 insightful spell focus mastery, but attunement gaze will benefit from raid scaling and will be +5 spell focus mastery / +3 insightful spell focus mastery which is +2 dc higher than legendary crown of snow. As far as I know it's the only single item with both of these slots, but there are some other items having one of these slots.

Sigil of Regalport is another item gaining a proxy boost due to artifact scaling. Most items with quality spell focus mastery will change to +1 such as black satin waist. Sigil of regalport will have +2 quality spell focus mastery so combined with the bonus charisma point will end up being 1.5 DC better than other items compared to .5 on live.

In terms of new items the 5-piece chronoscope set looks like an interesting set for a caster, especially a solo caster because it comes with +3 dc and +3 casting stat + 30 artifact PRR/MRR + 3 artifact constitution. In addition one of the pieces - the trinket (assuming it has right set bonus on it) can be cannith crafted and those stats will match end game stats now. It's missing boosts to crit chance and spellpower though which is a HUGE drawback. Elder's focus set has artifact bonus to universal crit chance and spellpower - so legendary might v+ elders set + clouded dreams looks really really strong, but requires getting the right 2 set bonuses on the legendary gem of many facets - ugh.

My gut reaction is that with U50 bladeforged fey warlock with vivace+ feywild dreamer set in fatesinger with more of an enchanting/blasting focus will be the way to go. I am going to at least turn in 2500 runes to get vivace and give it a try. I am less sure about whether ES/TS or the existing SE/TS split is the way to go with sonic warlock. Specifically I noted I was getting hit harder on lamannia by some enemies so the extra survivability might be worth it for soloing/shortmanning.

[Amastris]

Ive been running the same build for 7 months on G'land. I play what i call the Oprah build which, to draw a comparison, is like your DC Necro build. I have variations in it to fit my playstyle. needlessly to say i am not looking forward to U50. i think the tweaking process is going to be a pain in the ass.

I do have an abyss tanklock build which i dubbed the Tankenstein build. as i was refining it the other day i came across some buggy stuff. I had chosen you got my back in FI tree and i had cast nightshield and i was not being granted the MRR. i think that was on like monday or tuesday then i tried it again on thursday after the server reset and it seems to work. idk if its doing anything like that with clickies or not?


Have you thought about making a Carceri Crit dps build with one of the new sceptres from U49, possibly even combining it a Nullification stat stick to make a Q'staff for glaciation and necro DC. A bound elemental ring from LLoB could be good too. for filigrees you could also go 4 frozen wanderer, 4 of the new elemental avatar, 3 Dragonsoul more crit chance and damage. or possibly a 4 frozen wanderer, 5 Dragon soul and 2 Coal magic, both being USP for a possible +30 to USP. i know with the remake of DI tree all that crit is being removed and/or moved around some. A TS/ES build might be viable in some way. crits from blasting, creeping cold, greater creeping cold and niac's might be very nice dps.

off the top of my head, you get 60% crit dmg from TS, 35 from a LGS item and 20 from Dragonsoul, thats 115% crit damage. couple all the cold spells with ruin/G-ruin and energy burst (until if/when it gets changed in U51-ish) if it could be worked out to do a 7 piece autumn set that's another 5% crit chance and 15% crit damage. working in the LVoD avalance set would help too.

[slarden]

Ive been running the same build for 7 months on G'land. I play what i call the Oprah build which, to draw a comparison, is like your DC Necro build. I have variations in it to fit my playstyle. needlessly to say i am not looking forward to U50. i think the tweaking process is going to be a pain in the ass.

Yes and with the upcoming changes in U51 I am not super motivated to farm a bunch of raid gear for a few +1 and +2s. I may just stick with my current build and gear set until I understand the U51 changes better e.g., if I swap to fatesinger now I don't have to worry about arcane spell failure so can swap to a tower shield in my off-hand for alchemical. Of course there is no guarantee the arcane spell failure reduction will remain in U51 so if I do that I might not even get one full update of play in with it.

Based on what I saw on Lamannia I am guessing the ideal gear set for a solo/shortman build would be 5 piece Legendary Might of the Abishai with gem of many facets having both might set + elders set on it (how hard will that be to get with 20+ sets out there...). Then one elders knowledge piece (hat or neck TBD but probably hat due to gear tetris) to get 2 piece set + clouded dreams. Attunement gaze is the best in slot item for universal DC (beats legendary crown of snow by 2 DC), but it competes with brightgaze which is arguably the best artifact for a warlock and is getting a proxy boost in U50 due to the way artifact scaling works. So probably brightgaze + legendary amber pendant for neck. This would minimize raid farming and you can go with armor/docent for exceptional bonus instead of clouded dream and lose just 1 universal DC.

Have you thought about making a Carceri Crit dps build with one of the new sceptres from U49, possibly even combining it a Nullification stat stick to make a Q'staff for glaciation and necro DC. A bound elemental ring from LLoB could be good too. for filigrees you could also go 4 frozen wanderer, 4 of the new elemental avatar, 3 Dragonsoul more crit chance and damage. or possibly a 4 frozen wanderer, 5 Dragon soul and 2 Coal magic, both being USP for a possible +30 to USP. i know with the remake of DI tree all that crit is being removed and/or moved around some. A TS/ES build might be viable in some way. crits from blasting, creeping cold, greater creeping cold and niac's might be very nice dps.

off the top of my head, you get 60% crit dmg from TS, 35 from a LGS item and 20 from Dragonsoul, thats 115% crit damage. couple all the cold spells with ruin/G-ruin and energy burst (until if/when it gets changed in U51-ish) if it could be worked out to do a 7 piece autumn set that's another 5% crit chance and 15% crit damage. working in the LVoD avalance set would help too.

What I've found is that by maxing out dps on my warlock dps gains are too small to be impactful and it's not worth whatever utility I am giving up.

I did an analysis of filigree here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets...it?usp=sharing

Based on this I believe for a weapon swap the best options are 5-piece coalesced magic + 2-piece inevitable grave + 2-piece dragon soul and if also swapping out artifact it's probably 5-piece coalesced magic + 2 piece inevitable grave + 4 piece dragon soul + 1 10 USP filigree having all double stacked 10 USP filigree in the artifact.

In terms of trade-offs if I go with tier 5 soul eater with tainted scholar capstone I don't have the action points for greater color spray so I end up losing 10 PRR, 10 MRR and a great utility spell. I lose 15 force spellpower, 1 charisma and some spell points but gain 12 or so universal spellpower. I lose devour the soul which is probably my absolute best single-target spell. I might shave 10 seconds off of boss fights but I am worse against mobs which is where most of my time in a quest is spent.

If I use a quarterstaff for more crit damage again my dps gains are very small and I lose salt and ash off-hands. Ash is a much bigger boost to my dps vs. 20% crit damage. Salt is an important off-hand weapon especially when other forms of cc don't work well.

As you say alot comes down to playstyle. Also whether a person has access to LGS off-hand weapons impacts gearing and build choices significantly.

I've found where I spend most of my time in quests is dealing with mobs and that is where most of my risk is as well. I find utility spells like devour the soul and procs like salt very impactful against mobs. For boss fights I swap to 35% lgs cold crit belt , use my eardweller (1 minute) + delighter's docent (90 seconds) + any other spellpower boosts I can during the fight (remnant potions, alchemical potions, reaper potency clicky, tainted spellcasting clicky) and swap to a dps weapon (max dps filigree) + ash LGS in my off-hand. Those things are very impactful for boss fights. I also use greater ruin, arcane pulse and greater creeping cold in my rotation. I don't use ruin or creeping cold due mostly to spell point constraints. Once I am down to 1/3 of my spell points I stop using greater ruin which is really more of an issue on R6 solo and not as much on R4 solo, but even on R4 I run into spell point issues in some quests can't use greater ruin the whole boss fight - and I expect that to get worse with U50 because my dps is down just slightly compared to monster changes and my spell points are also down. So I'll need to use more spells on bosses but with less spell points.