A Few Questions....

[Drathsiddh]

I have TR'd my 1st life Druid into a Warlock and brought him up to level 7.
First thing... and I want to make this clear, I am not multi-classing. Seriously, I want to get the proper feel for the class, I want to play the class.
Second: I am making a caster, preferably a Soul Eater. I know that is pretty dumb and what not, but that's me .
(Third; and this seems a bit odd. Stoneskin requires the regular component, Ball of Bat Guano and Sulfur, and not Diamond Dust as it usually does. What is going on...?)
I am at level 7, on my second life, with just a Druid Past Life.
The three feats I have are; Expeditious Retreat, Blur and Stoneskin (read above.)
My pact is Fey, which if I remember right is unchangeable. I have maxed out Spellcraft, Concentration, with a few points into UMD and Perform and one point into Tumble.
My feats are (if I remember right) Mental Toughness, Spell Focus: Evocation and Maximize.

What Feats should I take going forward? I have never considered Quicken and with my maxed out Concentration, I doubt I really would.
My plan was to get a high EB damage by taking all the Tainted Scholar enhancements which boost EB damage (with EB Chain, Feinted Health and Planar Power), which is like all the APs till level 7 then switching over to Souleater and taking stuff till level x. I am still undecided on what capstone and Tier 5 to take. What is your stand on this?
I am a Drow, with max Cha, 16 Int and 14 Con. 7 levels in I have realized Human (with bonus feat +skill point) would've been better. Is there a way to change races?
What spells should I take?

I will update this as I get more questions. Thank you, fellow comrades.

[kemetka]

well that really depends on what type of caster you want to be, and what tree you plan to mainly focus in.
typically most warlock casters are running around as PCD casters >> Point Click Die <<
which case id say spell pen / spelll focuse illu/necro and greater spell focus illu / necro

however as your fey pact you dont get phantasmal killer so the illusion may go out the window, and you may want to focus more on enchnatment due to the dancing ball they get, which would be spell focus/ greater spell focus enchant, + spell pen and greater spell pen if you can afford it

also if you are going that route id recommend getting enlarge, the extra range for cc can be quite nice, but thats if you can fit it in.

as for the tree's and which elvel 5 and capstone to take :
tainted scholar will be better for enchantment
soul eater will be better for necro

so take your pick as to which way ya wanna go, hope that helps

[cru121]

or you could just e-blast stuff dead.

[Drathsiddh]

well that really depends on what type of caster you want to be, and what tree you plan to mainly focus in.
typically most warlock casters are running around as PCD casters >> Point Click Die <<
which case id say spell pen / spelll focuse illu/necro and greater spell focus illu / necro

however as your fey pact you dont get phantasmal killer so the illusion may go out the window, and you may want to focus more on enchnatment due to the dancing ball they get, which would be spell focus/ greater spell focus enchant, + spell pen and greater spell pen if you can afford it

also if you are going that route id recommend getting enlarge, the extra range for cc can be quite nice, but thats if you can fit it in.

as for the tree's and which elvel 5 and capstone to take :
tainted scholar will be better for enchantment
soul eater will be better for necro

so take your pick as to which way ya wanna go, hope that helps

Like I said, my previous life was a Druid, so I'm actually open to new play styles. I have had experience as a nuker (Sorc), but I didn't level him very far. Yes I was planning to take SF enchant too. Does Enlarge effect EB? AFAIK Enlarge isn't very useful but that's a field I am not experienced in.

[unbongwah]

My feats are (if I remember right) Mental Toughness, Spell Focus: Evocation and Maximize.

I would've skipped MT and backloaded SF:Evo. I prefer to take my metas first (Max / Emp / Quik / possibly Heighten) for boosting SLAs, then worry about Spell Focus and/or Spell Pen feats (depending on specialty).

Is there a way to change races?

Only by leveling back to 20 and TRing again, I'm afraid.

[Drathsiddh]

I would've skipped MT and backloaded SF:Evo. I prefer to take my metas first (Max / Emp / Quik / possibly Heighten) for boosting SLAs, then worry about Spell Focus and/or Spell Pen feats (depending on specialty).

Only by leveling back to 20 and TRing again, I'm afraid.

I remember reading somewhere that EBs are unaffected by Meta's and that Stunning Blast from the Tainted Scholar tree was useless. Since the only ability (spell/enhancement) that was effected by Metas would be obintained by around level 7-8 (Consume) I decided to take only one Meta early, which is Maximize. I do eventually plan to take Empower too.
As for Mental Toughens, I took it because of the +1 spell crit chance, which will work well with the the Tainted Scholar cores. Is this a good idea or does it hog up a feat slot?

Sigh, well then Drow it is.

[Tom116]

I remember reading somewhere that EBs are unaffected by Meta's and that Stunning Blast from the Tainted Scholar tree was useless. Since the only ability (spell/enhancement) that was effected by Metas would be obintained by around level 7-8 (Consume) I decided to take only one Meta early, which is Maximize. I do eventually plan to take Empower too.
As for Mental Toughens, I took it because of the +1 spell crit chance, which will work well with the the Tainted Scholar cores. Is this a good idea or does it hog up a feat slot?

Sigh, well then Drow it is.

If you're taking consume, it wouldn't be a bad idea to grab stricken as well. It can hit for well over 1k in the mid-heroics, I imagine it will hit even more as I increase crit multiplier and spellpower. Not to mention I'm not even heavily specced into soul eater, havn't taken either of the greater hungers yet

[unbongwah]

I remember reading somewhere that EBs are unaffected by Meta's and that Stunning Blast from the Tainted Scholar tree was useless. Since the only ability (spell/enhancement) that was effected by Metas would be obintained by around level 7-8 (Consume) I decided to take only one Meta early, which is Maximize. I do eventually plan to take Empower too.

You are correct that EBs aren't affected my metamagics, but there's 8 SLAs in the Warlock PrEs which would be boosted for free by Emp+Max; though that includes T5s, so naturally you won't have all of them. Still, you get enough extra oomph that I usually take Max+Emp ASAP on virtually every caster. For a Soul Eater build at lvl 8 (32 APs), you should have Consume, Stricken, and Burning Blood; so that's three SLAs you can boost.

As for Mental Toughens, I took it because of the +1 spell crit chance, which will work well with the the Tainted Scholar cores. Is this a good idea or does it hog up a feat slot?

If you go pure warlock, you only get 10 feats (7 heroic + 3 epic), so the question is "is +1% spell crit chance worth giving up a metamagic, DC bonus, or extra Spell Pen?" For me the answer is usually no, but that's for you to decide.

[Drathsiddh]

You are correct that EBs aren't affected my metamagics, but there's 8 SLAs in the Warlock PrEs which would be boosted for free by Emp+Max; though that includes T5s, so naturally you won't have all of them. Still, you get enough extra oomph that I usually take Max+Emp ASAP on virtually every caster. For a Soul Eater build at lvl 8 (32 APs), you should have Consume, Stricken, and Burning Blood; so that's three SLAs you can boost.

If you go pure warlock, you only get 10 feats (7 heroic + 3 epic), so the question is "is +1% spell crit chance worth giving up a metamagic, DC bonus, or extra Spell Pen?" For me the answer is usually no, but that's for you to decide.

Assuming I swap out of it, what feat would you recommend?

Also I don't think you got me. I meant I will only start investing in Soul Eater AFTER level 7 because I wanted to boost my EB.

[vageta311]

I have TR'd my 1st life Druid into a Warlock and brought him up to level 7.
First thing... and I want to make this clear, I am not multi-classing. Seriously, I want to get the proper feel for the class, I want to play the class.
Second: I am making a caster, preferably a Soul Eater. I know that is pretty dumb and what not, but that's me .
(Third; and this seems a bit odd. Stoneskin requires the regular component, Ball of Bat Guano and Sulfur, and not Diamond Dust as it usually does. What is going on...?)
I am at level 7, on my second life, with just a Druid Past Life.
The three feats I have are; Expeditious Retreat, Blur and Stoneskin (read above.)
My pact is Fey, which if I remember right is unchangeable. I have maxed out Spellcraft, Concentration, with a few points into UMD and Perform and one point into Tumble.
My feats are (if I remember right) Mental Toughness, Spell Focus: Evocation and Maximize.

What Feats should I take going forward? I have never considered Quicken and with my maxed out Concentration, I doubt I really would.
My plan was to get a high EB damage by taking all the Tainted Scholar enhancements which boost EB damage (with EB Chain, Feinted Health and Planar Power), which is like all the APs till level 7 then switching over to Souleater and taking stuff till level x. I am still undecided on what capstone and Tier 5 to take. What is your stand on this?
I am a Drow, with max Cha, 16 Int and 14 Con. 7 levels in I have realized Human (with bonus feat +skill point) would've been better. Is there a way to change races?
What spells should I take?

I will update this as I get more questions. Thank you, fellow comrades.

The pew-pew EB doesn't mesh as well with "caster warlock" as does the aura strangely enough. The startup time on EB is kind of slow so going back and forth between casting and firing off EB is sluggish and your dps is more limited. Not to say it can't work, but there are other options.

I've played 2 entirely different warlocks(Drow pure warlock 20 and BF with a 2 pally splash) and on my 2nd life of the one I ended up liking more(Drow). Anything less than warlock 20 makes a weaker warlock IMHO. Nothing you add can make it stronger unless you're only splashing some warlock levels to enhance a different build. The best "caster lock" is one who focuses on their Aura giving them free reign to cast their hearts out while you get free, serious dps while standing there. Pew-pew warlocks are either casting or firing EB, Aura locks do both at the same time. If you build for aura you will have plenty of survivability to not worry if things are attacking you at close range.

Here would be my suggestion for a caster lock. Pump up your ES tree with all the goodies, even pew-pew locks have much to gain from here. Other than the one row that focuses on the aura, most of the rest works for all types. Then splash some TS to get at least core 4, utterdark, a few damage enhancements and then put the rest into soul eater and focus mostly on consume and stricken with their bonuses. The enhancements to those SLA can weaken mobs and make your EB do even more which not surprisingly synergizes better with aura than EB blasting.

Maximize/empower both work on your eldritch burst/spirit blast AoE attacks which are on separate timers. These are your bread and butter DPS along with the aura just pumping out AoE damage every 2 seconds by level 18 with ES core 5. This means that every 5 seconds you spam your AoE attacks, leaving you the rest of the time to cast to your hearts content. You don't have to choose between stopping your EB blast in order to cast, instead your aura will continue to do damage while you do as you will.

If you take the majority of the ES light damage, hp boosts, MRR/PRR, medium armor, temp hp(shining through), displacement SLA, etc.. you will be an absolute tank machine that can cast spells without worry of taking too much damage. Aura build doesn't mean "melee build", it means you are free to cast spells while doing free and may I say BIG damage. Just remember that some of the abilities (2nd ES column) requires you to be in the aura to gain the benefit. You can still keep chain or whatever for times where you want range, I don't find that happening very much myself.

Also there is absolutely nothing wrong with Drow, they are actually a very good race for choosing Warlock and the one I ended up going with. You don't need that many feats to be strong and the bonus cha and int are perfect. You get a lot for your con so don't skimp, even if you have a little less cha. I haven't had much trouble with mobs resisting my EB damage or other spells for that matter even on EH. EE is another story.

Feats:

Maximize, empower, quicken are important. I usually take extend early on and can change it later, it's a quality of life thing. Mental toughness and IMT are both good for the extra crit and mana. SF: Evocation isn't a bad option though I don't think it's required by any means unless you are truly trying to max your DC's. Other than those, it's truly up to you. With those alone which is already less than you are allotted, you'll be perfectly fine. I'm lazy so I usually don't bother getting rid of extend, it's just too **** useful for short spells like displacment and it's an SLA so it's free.

I took my pew-pew warlock into EH devil assault and get stomped because I couldn't keep up with the damage and couldn't kill them fast enough. I switched up my build and put on a shield and it was like night and day. I never once went below my Shining through hps before I could refresh it and things we're dying much faster than they did with me trying to chain kill kite.

Turn on aura, drop an Evard's on top of yourself, eldritch burst/spirit blast, cast a few spells in between cleave timers, call it a day. I usually go GOO or Fey so I also can enthrall or dark delirium things or drop a disco ball to make things even more entertaining while I beat them down.

[Drathsiddh]

The pew-pew EB doesn't mesh as well with "caster warlock" as does the aura strangely enough. The startup time on EB is kind of slow so going back and forth between casting and firing off EB is sluggish and your dps is more limited. Not to say it can't work, but there are other options.

I've played 2 entirely different warlocks(Drow pure warlock 20 and BF with a 2 pally splash) and on my 2nd life of the one I ended up liking more(Drow). Anything less than warlock 20 makes a weaker warlock IMHO. Nothing you add can make it stronger unless you're only splashing some warlock levels to enhance a different build. The best "caster lock" is one who focuses on their Aura giving them free reign to cast their hearts out while you get free, serious dps while standing there. Pew-pew warlocks are either casting or firing EB, Aura locks do both at the same time. If you build for aura you will have plenty of survivability to not worry if things are attacking you at close range.

Here would be my suggestion for a caster lock..

While I do understand that casting in-between EBs is a bit of a problem and have experienced it myself Consume is a DOT so it certainly makes up for the delay. As for Stricken and level 8 without proper gear I am getting really good numbers (with just Maximize).

Melee Locks did cross my mind but I went a Caster because I wanted to get the full feel of the class. Maybe next time I roll a lock it'll be a melee. (Plus, considering the fact that the feat selection for TS and SE would be about the same, there is a large margin-for-error)