Level 4 Enlightened Tree Try

[ThomasHunter]

I'll admit that I am really stoked about this tree! It really seems to fit how I enjoy to play. I copied over my capped FvS and changed him to a pure Warlock and gave it a go. I thought it went quite well so I wanted to try something a bit low level and see how that went.

First, on a whim, I was thinking of splashing 2 Rogue for soloing content as I need. This wasn't a good idea as (at least initially), I just didn't have enough skill point.

Re-do and did a +1 LR to pure level 4 Warlock. Again, I am really excited to pummel my way through some low-level content. I went into Missing in Action and....

...I was pretty thoroughly bummed. Now, I'll admit that I don't understand all of the ins and out of Warlock yet and how to increase my aura damage, etc. On top of that, I only had a couple of low-level sickles to play around with (seemed flavorful). It felt so horribly bad. Bah.

On a lark, I switched to the focused EB on the other side. WHOA! A whole different story. The damage was simply overwhelming. Gosh that was fun!

Exit the dungeon and switch to full Soul Eater (with more crits and the chain blast so this may not be the right name as I only cared about Enlightened!). Go into the other dungeon by the Rusty Nail and proceed to completely outclass the bad guys. GLORIOUS!

Okay, now I am exited to try that a bit more. Eat an Otto's stone and level to 20 and try Heroic Elite LoD. Did pretty darn well except for the annoying bit of having to turn off EB to break through doors. The Fear Immunity bug always played a role with numerous deaths to Rakshasha in there.

So, my only criticism on that build was a lack of a "Boss DPS Finisher". I went Focused EB and that did help, but I didn't have any ED's running - just a plain, vanilla level 20 toon (and probably under-geared to boot).

So, 2 points to this overall tl;dr:

1. When does the Enlightend tree kick in? Wow, that just felt bad at low levels. Really a bummer.
2. Is there any sort of Boss DPS alternative in general?

Thanks for reading. Good times and I can't wait. Please make Enlightened focused toons okay at low levels.

[ThomasHunter]

I've also posted about CHR-to-damage in that tree which I still think makes a lot of sense. In the cores seems nice.

However, that still wouldn't help at really low levels. Sadness...

[Rhysem]

I've also posted about CHR-to-damage in that tree which I still think makes a lot of sense. In the cores seems nice.

However, that still wouldn't help at really low levels. Sadness...

The problem is the aura scales exponentially with warlock levels, since damage is dice * ticks per second (ie: 0.2, 0.25, 0.3333, 0.5).

I expect everybody will just run in TS with chain'd EB until they hit 12+ where the damage dice and tick rate start getting up there and you gain access to the bursts.

[Skavenaps]

I've also posted about CHR-to-damage in that tree which I still think makes a lot of sense. In the cores seems nice.

However, that still wouldn't help at really low levels. Sadness...

Just roll a PDK.. is at the bottom of the tree. easy to get char to hit and dmg.

[ThomasHunter]

Well, I really wanted to give the devs something to think about with at least a low-level check (albeit quick) on the Enlightened tree. I simply thought it wasn't very fun and in fact, it felt lacking.

Now, I am unsure what would help though. I wonder if the aura proc'ing quicker would help? Is that abuse-able? I am unsure as I think the blast damage is what scales with level. Again, not sure that would even help.

[Rhysem]

Well, I really wanted to give the devs something to think about with at least a low-level check (albeit quick) on the Enlightened tree. I simply thought it wasn't very fun and in fact, it felt lacking.

Now, I am unsure what would help though. I wonder if the aura proc'ing quicker would help? Is that abuse-able? I am unsure as I think the blast damage is what scales with level. Again, not sure that would even help.

Yes, because they designed brilliance to tick off the aura and based it off a non-warlock-specific stat (con score). 16 barb 4 warlock ticking >100 pt damage shield every 2 seconds... not cool.

[DANTEIL]

Well, I really wanted to give the devs something to think about with at least a low-level check (albeit quick) on the Enlightened tree. I simply thought it wasn't very fun and in fact, it felt lacking.

Now, I am unsure what would help though. I wonder if the aura proc'ing quicker would help? Is that abuse-able? I am unsure as I think the blast damage is what scales with level. Again, not sure that would even help.

Just chiming in to say that this has been my experience as well (played up to lvl 7 in enlightened spirit now). For the most part playing low-level with the aura has been pretty tedious and not all that interesting. I know that low-level characters are always pretty limited, but the Warlock/ES just seems pretty blah on the aura. Switching to the Blast was much more dynamic and engaging.

[cru121]

I guess summons, hirelings, and charms could make the early life of Enlightened Spirit easier.
Or master's touch, bull's strength pot, Carnifex...
But it seems the tree could use some lowbie offensive evocation (SLA?) to spam, if someone preferred pure caster route. Chill Touch? Sonic Blast?

[ThomasHunter]

I build a toon with a reason and a direction. So, I really would be bummed to have to feel like I have to switch away from ES at low levels. That isn't the character that I am building!

I wish I had a suggestion here, but am just not sure. I agree that it isn't interesting or engaging at low levels. So sad.

[Genebob]

I build a toon with a reason and a direction. So, I really would be bummed to have to feel like I have to switch away from ES at low levels. That isn't the character that I am building!

I wish I had a suggestion here, but am just not sure. I agree that it isn't interesting or engaging at low levels. So sad.

I find myself in the same position, I cant have any fun with es until at least level 8ish, and it becomes great after 12. I hate that I end up building as a TS until then, then respec.

One suggestion that I proposed earlier was to have it start off at 2 seconds, but scale down the SP(like they do with the other shapes) or even total damage until higher cores.

For example, 25% scaling at the beginning, then go to 50/75/100 at higher cores.

I really think that would help, even if it doesnt fix everything.

[FuryFlash]

[*]Is there any sort of Boss DPS alternative in general?

Actually, they designed the Soul Eater tree exactly for this purpose. Their debuffs, from what I can tell, nearly all work on bosses and such debuffs as vulnerability add a lot of DPS. These guys really focus on building up damage over time. Perfect for bosses, even their main ability, Consume, is essentially a more debuffy version of the popular boss DPS spells, Niac's Biting Cold and Eladar's Electric Surge (It stacks up to 3 times, same as these.)

Of course, with their Cone Shape and insta-kills, they can still make quick work of trash mobs. Mostly though, they focus on boss DPS. I haven't had much time to test them myself, but I think you will see some good results if you try it out! Hope this helps.

[ThomasHunter]

Actually, they designed the Soul Eater tree exactly for this purpose. Their debuffs, from what I can tell, nearly all work on bosses and such debuffs as vulnerability add a lot of DPS. These guys really focus on building up damage over time. Perfect for bosses, even their main ability, Consume, is essentially a more debuffy version of the popular boss DPS spells, Niac's Biting Cold and Eladar's Electric Surge (It stacks up to 3 times, same as these.)

Of course, with their Cone Shape and insta-kills, they can still make quick work of trash mobs. Mostly though, they focus on boss DPS. I haven't had much time to test them myself, but I think you will see some good results if you try it out! Hope this helps.

Yup, definitely something to keep in mind! Thanks!