EE Solo Breaking the Ranks Pure Warlock

[TheWalruss]

Ok.

Human True Neutral Warlock. (At the moment I'm PDK. There's no reason to choose Iconic other than skipping level 1-15)
Starting stats: STR 8, DEX 8, CON 16, INT 16, WIS 8, CHA 18 (36 pt build. With less, drop INT). Level ups in CHA.

Pact?



Feats? Empower, Maximize, Quicken, Evocation, Greater Evocation, Mental Toughness, Improved Mental Toughness, Past Life: Wizard
Epic Eldritch Blast, Epic Mental Toughness, Epic Arcane Eldritch Blast, Epic Spell Power: Light, Ruin.

Skills? Spellcraft, UMD, Heal, Search, Jump

Spells? Important ones are Dark Discorporation, Displace, Evard's Black Tentacles, Nightshield, Greater Heroism, Deathward

Enhancements?



Epic Destiny? Several are fun. Mostly run as Shiradi. The solo run in Breaking the Ranks posted below was as Exalted Angel.






Twists of Fate? Energy Burst: Fire, Empyrean Magic. Lots of options. Consecrate is fun as Fiend too, and you can get +60 Spell Power to fire damage as well.

Gear? Nothing special. Thunderforged Longsword (150 fire power, +6 evocation), Libram of Silver Magic, Orcish Privateer's Boots, Guardians Ring (heroic elite version with featherfall augment), Mysterious Bracers (heavy fortification augment), Flawless Blue Dragonscale Armor (medium armor), Supreme Tyrant Green Steel Goggles of Concordant Opposition, Helm of the Blue Dragon (+3 insightful charisma, false life +35 augment), Necklace of Mystic Eidolons, Epic Litany of the Dead, Adamantine Cloak of the Dragon, Epic Belt of Thoughtful Remembrance, Lantern Ring (Globe of True Imperial Blood augment), Iron Mitts (diamond of heal +13 augment).



Did I forget anything?

[TheWalruss]

[Uska]

If you used a hireling your not solo

[TheWalruss]

If you used a hireling your not solo

I didn't. Don't even know how to keep one alive.

[kisscess]

WOW... It;s Mirrkim.

thanks!!!

[xristoss]

Are you using the Aura all the time?Cause its stops eldrich blasts right?

[TheWalruss]

I use the aura all the time and I have no issue using the blasts when they're off cooldown.

[kemetka]

this is close to how i do mine, though i didnt spend the points for slowblast and pierce blast from TS. at higher level stuff stormhorns and what not when running EE I definatly see the value of running in exalted.

Typically I run in shiradi, twist in summer smoke and healers bounty from primal avatar, they work exceptionally well with chain and provide a nice semi-constant stream of healing / death. Typically ill only run in EA if Im going into a high end EE raid and their isnt much of a dedicated healer or support person.

Aside from that, your CHA based, i assume as you are casting alot, I focused on the pure damage from the eldrith blast and busts, going high int / spellcraft.

[Alternative]

you could call that the 99 percent build

[FranOhmsford]

you could call that the 99 percent build

Why?

[kemetka]

Why?

99% of all warlocks seem to be following this basic archetype for a couple of reasons :
1, it is proven to work, and its rather easy to build.
2, if you have morninglord past lives they instantly became more relevant
3, all the caster gear you need in epic levels is sumed up mostly in 1 ring to rule them all.

and the key to all of it honestyl is untterdark blast to make everything alignment based damage.
even going soul eater while using utterdark is a great move since all of their eldritch "SLA"s are chaos damage. And from my own testing the eldritch wave has better damage output that the burst/blast from ES, but ES is the survivability tree, if consume had a lower cooldown then it wouldnt be so bad, as I can heal myself for 450 from consume, but since that is the only actual healing the entire warlock class has built into it, its not rally conducive to use that over shine through, which gives you a healthy buffer on top of your normal HP.

[TheWalruss]

twist in summer smoke and healers bounty

Good idea. Didn't consider smoke. Unfortunately TRed out of 'lock so it will have to wait a few days now :-P

CHA based, i assume as you are casting alot, I focused on the pure damage from the eldrith blast and bursts, going high int / spellcraft.

This was my initial inclination but it was my first life and I wanted to have a back up plan if Warlock was gimp (cha to dam in PDK for melee). But it turned out with my final spell rotation I had no time at all for melee. My spell rotation was:

1. Evard's Tentacles (with high DC the snare works magically even in EE Ranks and Exalted Angel gives a +3 to all spell DCs with core 5)
2. burst
3. burst
4. Divine Wrath
5. Energy Burst
(6. Sun Bolt)
7. Refresh Shine Through/Cocoon or Ruin/Hellball -> back to 1

So yeah, going full cha is only useful for Evard's and Wrath. And Evard's uses conjuration DCs. I was still able to snare huge packs of mobs on ee without conjuration DCs though.

Also, depending on gear, you wouldn't be able to afford Ruin/Hellball on much else than the last 2 red nameds in Ranks. Torc, RoSS, ConcOpp and Eternal Scorching Light could help. I only have 1 of those.

Finally, ruin is more fun for Fey-'locks 'cus untyped is force.

all the caster gear you need in epic levels is sumed up mostly in 1 ring to rule them all.

This is where Eternal Scotching Light comes in. However, I also like the Adamantine Cloak of the Dragon. It's easy to get and it adds another +2 to all spell DCs. Wail is wonderful in EE Tor.

and the key to all of it honestyl is untterdark blast to make everything alignment based damage. Even going soul eater while using utterdark is a great move since all of their eldritch "SLA"s are chaos damage.

Yep. Multiclasses would benefit from .3 multiplier instead of .6 and get some more stuff in SE. And the Stricken vulnerability is beastly. When you burst both your pact damage, blast damage and extras from ring and the ES tree adds a stack of vul.

And yes, consume is also a very nice heal. I just hate when I have to run away backwards and still be sure to hit something with it - while trying not to die :-D

All in all I think a future no-brainer-burst-'lock would be fun as Sun Elf. Huge int and an additional +30 radiance spell power from racial tree.

[kemetka]

Agreed on the burst specific warlock using sun elf to a degree, its hard to compare the 2 side by side with lamma land closed now unfortunately. though with my current build I am not able to afford it due to the enhancment point constraints

the big question is which would compare better for the burst based warlock :
sun elf fort he higher INT and the +30 racial light sp
or human and gaining all core abilities in TS

while the spell power boost is constant, the +30% additional crit damage is massive if the RNG is kind to you.

as for tentacles the save, as i understand it, is only for the damage, the actual hold effect is only reference by spell resistance and a strength check. my starting CHA was low, and i took no boosts to spll DC either from feet or gear choice, and i still hold stuff fine in EE content, could just be me though.

[xristoss]

I use the aura all the time and I have no issue using the blasts when they're off cooldown.

So you use only bursts?No blasts?I am leveling atm a Warlock for 1st time and i have some questions (prolly nubish)
In heroic levels how do you suggest to xp?

[richieelias27]

So you use only bursts?No blasts?I am leveling atm a Warlock for 1st time and i have some questions (prolly nubish)
In heroic levels how do you suggest to xp?

If you're using bursts + stricken + consume, there is barely enough time to throw in a single blast attack in-between anyway. That and they *STILL* have not fixed the janky animations that make it annoying to cast while blasting.

[kemetka]

If you're using bursts + stricken + consume, there is barely enough time to throw in a single blast attack in-between anyway. That and they *STILL* have not fixed the janky animations that make it annoying to cast while blasting.

if your leveling from 1, chain is the easiest way to go you get it at 2 and from there the class mostly builds itself if you stick with TS, you just need to decide if you will lean towards soul eater or ES, both have their own flavor to them so to each their own.

I eTRd my main last night to try something out running in EA and twisting in energy burst / empyrean / interrogation and something from shiradi that gave +15 spellpower, using this idea of play where you leave the aura up, and you just burst/burst/energyblast/divine wrath. not bad, its far more involved than what i was previously doing which was just hitting thing with chain blasts, didnt notice any significant increase / decrease in dps but i retained the high int build so that probably had something to do with it, considering my base spellpower before considering scaling for aura/blast/burst was peaking close to 600.

about the animation for casting while blasting, after playing blast build extensivly, i found that if you hold the attack button down you will hear 1 more blast after you release so :
if you hold down until you hear the 2nd blast, you will shoot 3 blasts then be free to cast
i typically hold it down long enough for the full 3rd blast, so the animation would be a 4th blast. 4 blasts is the full cooldown for blast/burst so works out well.

[TheWalruss]

my base spellpower before considering scaling for aura/blast/burst was peaking close to 600

How did you reach that number? I think I was 500ish when I was at my best and that was with Libram and TF. (Still recorded a crit for 13,000 light damage on burst though xD).

[kemetka]

How did you reach that number? I think I was 500ish when I was at my best and that was with Libram and TF. (Still recorded a crit for 13,000 light damage on burst though xD).

pure int build, max spellpower, 3 morninglord past lives, lantern ring, spellpower tiwsts.
then other buffs that i was playing around with i could get my spellpower between 620-650 dpeneing on procs before accounting for scaling due to EB, that was running in primal avatar IIRC, not a warlock anymore and didnt save the exact setup, sorry.

my build though also included :
skill focus spellcraft
warlock past life feat

[TheWalruss]

pure int build, max spellpower, 3 morninglord past lives, lantern ring, spellpower tiwsts.
then other buffs that i was playing around with i could get my spellpower between 620-650 dpeneing on procs before accounting for scaling due to EB, that was running in primal avatar IIRC, not a warlock anymore and didnt save the exact setup, sorry.

my build though also included :
skill focus spellcraft
warlock past life feat

Very nice. I'll get past Warlock again soon, I'll remember these things and update the post, all credit to you.

Thanks.

[AtomicMew]

I think T5 ES is outdated, since eldritch burst has been nerfed 50%. I am running this in shiradi:

31 ES (celestial spirit)
8-10 TS (10% crit, utterdark)
37-39 SE (vulnerability, consume, stricken, eldritch wave)

I'm pretty sure this does more DPS, especially on bosses with 20% vulnerability and big damage from stricken/consume. You can also splash 2 levels of whatever with almost no downside. I'm running pure warlock right now, but I was planning to LR and splash 2 wizard for MM and MM SLA (4 missile hits with abishai and arcane soldier). However, U29 is going to change everything, so I'm not wasting a LR heart at the moment.