The Gladys Knight - A tanky, swashbuckling warlock with soul!

[unbongwah]

Little bit of a necro post, but wanted to try this build and I was just wondering why you build up single weapon fighting and then at 24 suddenly take perfect two weapon fighting?

PTWF's +5% doublestrike bonus applies regardless of melee weapon / combat style; so it's good for all melee builds, not just dual-wielders.

[DocTom]

Hey! Is this build still playable? I see it's been about a year since creation... Sounds like SUCH a blast though! Still going strong? Any tweaks? THANKS!

[zehnvhex]

Like most ES blast hybrid builds it's crazy strong in heroics and EN, mediocre in EH and low in EE content.

[Krushyn]

With all the changes to the game in the past couple of years, how would this be for a second life 1-20? i have a tieflings blade and a couple of buckler shields and a +6 supreme tome

[Zretch]

With all the changes to the game in the past couple of years, how would this be for a second life 1-20? i have a tieflings blade and a couple of buckler shields and a +6 supreme tome

I don't know that it's any better or worse than it was. I really like bard, I really like warlock, but I've decided against running them together in a single build. ES warlocks get the majority of their damage from their blast/burst and Evard's. Those three things all break fascinate, as does your aura. Burst and Blast take about a second to cast each, and are up every 5 seconds, so you about 40% of your time you spend just bursting, leaving you ~60% of the time for melee. Just as you start feeling like you're getting momentum in your melee swings, it's time to burst again. It's a build that fights against itself a bit. Many of the things you do to improve the bard side are watered down by the warlock side and vis versa. As a flavor build, go for it! Otherwise, 20 warlock is tough to beat from 1-20.

[Krushyn]

I don't know that it's any better or worse than it was. I really like bard, I really like warlock, but I've decided against running them together in a single build. ES warlocks get the majority of their damage from their blast/burst and Evard's. Those three things all break fascinate, as does your aura. Burst and Blast take about a second to cast each, and are up every 5 seconds, so you about 40% of your time you spend just bursting, leaving you ~60% of the time for melee. Just as you start feeling like you're getting momentum in your melee swings, it's time to burst again. It's a build that fights against itself a bit. Many of the things you do to improve the bard side are watered down by the warlock side and vis versa. As a flavor build, go for it! Otherwise, 20 warlock is tough to beat from 1-20.

for someone who has never played a caster in his life, in any game. is there a current warlock build that would still have at least the feel of some melee while crossing over for a life before i try pure casters?

[unbongwah]

for someone who has never played a caster in his life, in any game. is there a current warlock build that would still have at least the feel of some melee while crossing over for a life before i try pure casters?

If you have Vistani, you could probably do some sort of VKF / Enlightened Spirit hybrid. This lets you stay pure warlock for the sweet ES capstone while still having passable melee DPS...maybe? Trouble is warlocks don't get a CHA to dmg option like FvS or bard; but pure warlock caster is still so strong you don't want to MC either.

This build was always a bit on the flavor side, though, sacrificing caster DPS for a bit of stabby-stabby. And honestly there's so much power creep in DDO from gear, tomes, etc. that I'm not sure starting with low base STR on a pure warlock would be such a handicap for a flavor build anyway.

[Zretch]

for someone who has never played a caster in his life, in any game. is there a current warlock build that would still have at least the feel of some melee while crossing over for a life before i try pure casters?

Just go pure warlock tier5 and capstone in ES and about 26 in tainted. You'll get to swing your weapons between bursts, and you can pretend that the weapon swings actually matter. It is a fantasy game after all.

Just think of your bursts as cleaves that are so ridiculously better than any actual melee cleave, that you can ignore the fact that you're hitting for 20 damage a swing...

[Dohvak]

The Gladys Knight is a flexible melee PbAoE build. It's powerful on heroic and epic levels and will work nicely as a quick and brainless warlock past life or a powerful and durable first life toon. (get a Tiefling Assassin's Blade from Three Barrel Cove asap tho and ask a friendly crafter for an assortment of Radiance rings. You'll thank me later. )

In a way it’s a flavor toon for my main Yumie Nightfall, which always and forever will stay Drow. If you want to squeeze every last bit out of the character I’d recommend using human as a race instead, gaining one more feat.

I’m currently leveling it up and having a total blast.

Feel free to give feedback and point out mistakes or optimizations that keep the general build idea and flavor.

If you got questions about the build and happen to hang out on Khyber, send Yumie a tell and we'll chat.


PLAYSTYLE =================================================

I'd describe it as a mixture of a barbarian and a sorcerer - on steroids.

Step 1 - Gather about a million mobs
Step 2 - Intimidate, to prevent those pesky killst...eh, party members from distracting your prey
Step 3 - Hit your Burst. Stuff dies.
Step 4 - Hit your other Burst. More stuff dies. A lot.
Step 5 - If you really feel like it, kill some stuff with absurd melee crits for a change.

- If things go haywire, turn off your aura and hit Fascinate. Take a nap. Or kill some stuff. You pick.

- If you take actual damage, hit a Cocoon. Or chuck a Silverflame pot, boosted by your Heal Amp and triggering even more temp HP.

- If you face a trap, boost your temp HP, slap on a Protection from energy and just walk through it.

- Can't reach stuff? Switch to blaster mode and annihilate ranged mobs with level 14 powered single target Warlock blasts.

- Oh, and buff those other guys as well occasionally. Share temp HP across the group every 3 seconds. Spam any pot as a layered poor mans 'group heal'. Make new players happy as they throw toothpicks on dragons!

- Show off your tentacles. Then sing a good soul tune in group chat while autorunning to the next 30 mobs. ("War! Huah! Yeah! What is it good for? Absolutely nothing!" is one of my favorites...and no, don't sing it on voicechat.)


REQUIREMENTS =================================================

- Warlock class unlocked (obviously…)
- A +3 Dexterity tome, if you don’t want to make compromises stat-wise and use Precision.


PRO =================================================

- Solid swashbuckler SWF melee with all the appropriate feats
- Added perks from warlock like selfbuffs, great UMD and lots of temp HP
- If you’re into tanking: High DC Intimidate and extra melee threat
- Balanced defenses with a lot of stacked PRR/MRR, capped dodge and displacement
- Decent Fortitude and great Will saves
- Decent HP pool
- Solo and group friendly
- High DC Fascinate
- Brainless area damage

CONTRA =================================================

- No evasion (if that counts as a contra nowadays). Technically you could get Evasion from epic destinies, but…
- …reflex save is sorta crappy
- You gotta like Soul music!
- You gotta call your tentacles lovingly „the Pip’s“

---

THE GLADYS KNIGHT =================================================

---

Drow, True Neutral
14 Warlock / 3 Bard / 3 Fighter

Str 14
Dex 10
Con 12
Int 14
Wis 8
Cha 20 (all level-ups)

If you pick Precision instead of Epic Eldritch Blast as a feat, you’ll need a +3 Dex tome to hit the 13 dex prereq. If you don’t have that available, lower Strength or Intelligence accordingly. (but...even if you're just starting out, these tomes are not all that hard to come by, be it from friendly guildies or farming some gold and buying one at the AH.)

On a first and second life I'd probably recommend to lower strength a bit and making up for the lost to hit by taking the Precision feat. (melee damage on this build is Charisma based)



SKILLS =================================================

- Spellcraft, Perform, Intimidate, UMD, Heal (only half ranks)
- at least 7 ranks in Balance for GSWF
- 1 point in Jump and Tumble
- spare points in Concentration, or whatever you like really


FEATS =================================================

SWF, ISWF, GSWF, Maximize, Empower, Quicken, Improved Critical, Shield Mastery, Improved Shield Mastery, Force of Personality, Overwhelming Crit, Perfect Two Weapon Fighting, Epic Eldritch Blast (or Precision), Epic Arcane Eldritch Blast

Lvl.  Class      Feats
=================================================
1     Bard       Single Weapon Fighting 
2     Warlock    Pact: Fey
3     Warlock    Maximize
4     Warlock
5     Warlock
6     Warlock    Empower
7     Bard
8     Warlock
9     Warlock    Quicken
10    Bard
11    Warlock
12    Warlock    Improved Critical
13    Fighter    Shield Mastery
14    Fighter    Improved Shield Mastery
15    Fighter    Improved Single Weapon Fighting
16    Warlock
17    Warlock    
18    Warlock    Force Of Personality
19    Warlock
20    Warlock
21    Epic       Overwhelming Critical
24    Epic       Greater Single Weapon Fighting
26    Epic       Perfect Two Weapon Fighting
27    Epic       Precision (or Epic Eldritch Blast)
28    Epic       Epic Arcane Eldritch Blast

The feat order is pretty much adaptable to your tastes. I recommend getting at least Maximize and Empower early as the Warlock Burst powers are immensely powerful on heroic levels.

The level order might still be optimized a bit to get the best yield from your skill points: Bard at level 1 is a given (most skill points), frontload Warlock for me as well (most fun), then take Bard and Fighter levels as late as possible to optimize cheap Intimidate and Perform level up’s. Having said that, especially Bard 3 is lots of fun to take early, as it makes killing those poor bursted bastards that much more whammy.


OPTIONS =================================

"Moar swashbuckling"
A decent build option would be to use Cleave / Greater Cleave instead of Empower / Maximize and remove the two warlock Burst abilities, which has the added perk of freeing some enhancement points. This probably is better with 5 bard levels and tier 5 swashbuckling stuff. I opted against that for now, mostly because I wanted to try the effectiveness of said Bursts on a deep splash melee warlock. Also, it fits the zergy, brainless nature of the build. See below discussion for further contemplation on this.

"Moar soul"
Yes, it's possible. Picture James Brown on a reunion concert with the Temptations. The idea is to use FvS levels instead of fighter. This loses 2 feats and the defensive goodness that is stalwart defender. It also adds a lot in regards of Burst and Aura damage with Shield of Condemnation, light SP, spell crit, plus some defenses from Warpriest as well. (LavidDynch and Tapster pointed that great option out, thanks!)

"Drow? Seriously?"
A good argument can be made for sure to use a different race. Human as always is a great option for an additional feat and probably is the best option overall. Also Dwarf comes to mind to add more Con and HP (but...you're very, very AP starved when you fiddle with the details and lose Charisma). Or maybe PDK for both Charisma to Hit and Damage (but you don't really need the to hit and it has it's drawbacks as well...less skillpoints total...more AP needed...).

As mentioned, Yumie will stay Drow, so for me this was not an option at all. Feel free to figure out build variations and post them in this thread, tho.


SPELLS ================================================== ==

Bard 1 (3): Sonic Blast, Focusing Chant, Cure Light Wounds
Warlock 1 (2): Jump, Shield
Warlock 2 (2): Blur, Invisibility
Warlock 3 (2): Dimension Door, Displacement
Warlock 4 (1): Evard’s Black Tentacles, Protection from Elements
Warlock 5 (1): Tenser’s Transformation



ENHANCEMENTS =================================

Warlock - Enlightened Spirit

4 AP - 4x Core (Aura every 3 sec., +5% Healamp, Fear Immune, 10 max HP, 5 MRR)
3 AP - Spiritual Defense (9 AC, 15 HP)
3 AP - Resilience of Body (6 PRR)
3 AP - Spiritual Bastion (13 PRR)
3 AP - Spiritual Ward (13 MRR)
3 AP - Eldritch Burst
6 AP - Power of Enlightenment (30 Light SP, 12 Universal SP)
1 AP - Brilliance (Aura gives temp HP)
3 AP - Spiritual Retribution (3d6 Light Damage on hit)
4 AP - 2x Charisma
3 AP - Spirit Blast
2 AP - Beacon (+20 Heal Amp)
2 AP - Shining Through (12xCon temp HP clicky, +25 Heal Amp for 20 sec, 30 sec CD)
----
42 AP

Warlock - Tainted Scholar

1 AP - Core (+25 SP, +2 DC clicky)
2 AP - Strong Pact (2d4 Pact Damage)
2 AP - Feigned Health (temp HP on cast - or pot use!)
2 AP - Utterdark Blast (Blast + Aura damage turns evil -> affected by light SP)
----
7 AP

Bard - Swashbuckler

2 AP - 2xCore (2% Dodge, +2 Reflex, +2 Max Dex Bonus, 1% Doublestrike, +1 Weapon Enh.)
1 AP - Tavern Shanties (1 more Bard Songs)
3 AP - On your Toes (3% Dodge)
2 AP - Fast Movement (4% Runspeed)
2 AP - Deflect Arrows
1 AP - Skirmisher (10% Dodge)
6 AP - Resonant Arms (6d6 Sonic Damage on crit)
2 AP - Different Tack (Cha to Damage)
----
19 AP


Fighter - Stalwart Defender

2 AP - 2x Core (18 HP, 6% Fort, 10 PRR, 10 MRR, 50% melee threat)
3 AP - Durable Defense (15 PRR, 15 MRR)
3 AP - Stalwart Defensive Mastery (3 AC, 3 Max Dex Bonus for Armor)
3 AP - Resilient Defense (3 All Saves)
3 AP - Hardy Defense (6 Con)
----
14 AP


PRR =================================

10 PRR Stalwart Defense
15 PRR Durable Defense
6 PRR Resilience of Body
13 PRR Spiritual Bastion
5 PRR Improved Shield Mastery
15 PRR Legendary Shield Mastery
16 PRR Light Armor
35 PRR Sheltering
5 PRR Insightful Sheltering
----
120 PRR, 54.55% damage reduction


MRR =================================

10 MRR Stalwart Defense
15 MRR Durable Defense
13 MRR Spiritual Ward
5 MRR Enlightened Spirit Core
10 MRR Paragon’s Aegis
10 MRR Light Armor
35 MRR Sheltering
5 MRR Insightful Sheltering
----
103 MRR, capped at 100 for Light Armor, 50% damage reduction


AVOIDANCE =================================

2% Swashbuckler Cores
3% On your Toes
10% Swashbuckler Stance with a buckler
===
15% Dodge, plus gear

Dodge caps at 27% with Guild Bonus. Limiting factor is probably your choice of armor. With Thunderforged you’ll be able to hit 21% + 3% Defensive Mastery + 2% swashbuckler core = 26%.

Then 50% Displacement, on a seperate roll.
Then 10% Incorporeal, on a seperate roll.


MELEE DAMAGE PROCS =================================

6d6 sonic damage, scaling, on crit
3d6 light damage, scaling, on hit
2d6 sneak attack from Shadow Killer Thunderforged


AURA AND BURSTS =================================

Aura, every 3 seconds

7d6 light damage, 14 Warlock
2d6 light damage, Epic Eldritch Blast
2d6 light damage, Epic Arcane Eldritch Blast
7d4 sonic damage, reflex for half, 14 Warlock
2d4 sonic damage, reflex for half, Tainted Scholar
----
20 - 102, scales with 150% light / sonic SP


Eldritch Burst: Hits for aura damage plus 3d6 light damage:

23 - 120, scales with 120% light / sonic SP


Spirit Blast: Hits for aura damage 10d6 light damage:

30 - 162, scales with 120% light / sonic SP


DOUBLESTRIKE =================================

8% Improved Shield Mastery
7% Legendary Shield Mastery
1% Swashbuckler
----
16%, plus 0-50% from Divine Crusader


EPIC DESTINY =================================

The build is not yet fully fleshed out for epic levels. In my opinion it works best in Divine Crusader:

• meshes very well with the PbAoE nature of the build
• closes a few gaps, namely some strong active healing and full BAB, if you don't want to use Tenser's.
• warlock aura also builds Purification stacks lightning fast
• the better critical profile synergizes with swashbuckling

Twists: Cocoon, Legendary Shield Mastery, Grim Precision (you'll know what to pick as a 4th if you have it available )

Another Twist combination pointed out by Tapster (thanks!) is using Prism, Double Rainbow and Legendary Shield Mastery as a third, if you can live without cocoon or have 4 twists available.

Enjoy

why pact fey? is it possible another one?

[Gnarkh]

When you come back to the game after a few years, browse the forum and on warlock page one suddenly think "****, that's a fine name for a build, why didn't I come up with that..."

Wow, what a necro. This build is very, very old.

Some afterthoughts:

- Was great on heroic, and effective but not stellar on epic levels, where the defenses don't provide god mode, and - on higher difficulties - the lack of specialization started to hurt CC and the not so well scaling damage sources. I think, some abilities taken scale better now and gearing a hybrid build would be easier in a way now. I still wouldn't recommend a hybrid like this, if you plan to stay at cap, farm gear on r100, etc.

- From today's point of view: One problem of the build would be to-hit stat, if you play any higher difficulty on epic/legendary, as it only has charisma to damage as is. As an easy fix, change race to PDK. Or pass on any DC casting and go strength based. Or drop fighter and use the AP for falconry or harper for wisdom or int as a weapon stat. The feats still fit if you drop force of personality and go human.

- Compared to other melee builds at cap, it's also lacking melee power and 'strong' damage amplifiers you get from other trees, like more base damage, additional fort reduction or added helpless damage. Falconry might be a good pick here to mitigate that somewhat.

Would still be interested to hear from people that actually play a bard splash and/or warlock aura builds at cap nowadays.

Regarding some comments, sorry for the umm, late reply.

- This build's focus was 'a melee variant for warlock past lives'. For that I'd bet it's still fun to play, the burst damage should still work and trash stuff, and the shield feats actually got better. Also, first life friendly, and you need to farm just one item or luck out on the AH.

- For heroic levels, I'd believe a 'lots of warlock with swashbuckling' build is still viable and a powerful, fun option, if let's say you don't like caster warlocks all that much. (*yawn*). If you don't factor in the capstone, warlock 15-20 doesn't add all that much to an aura build, really. Or 18-20, if you skip the fighter splash.

- It's a simple build trade: AoE dices for (early) single target damage and more defense. Surviving and killing a red champ faster might be more valuable now actually than when I played this build, especially if you want to run melee on a 'less than 100 past lifes' toon.

- Defensively, as a buckler build, it also adds 15% dodge, buckler procs for soft control, PRR/MRR (also, MP and doublestrike) from shield feats. Fighter adds PRR/MRR, hitpoints and saves as well for a low AP cost. If you should value defenses on heroic at all, is a long discussion. Depending on PLs and difficulties you run, ymmv.

- Regarding 'bursts and melee damage work against each other'. This argument I can't follow at all, it's like saying "Don't take cleave and greater cleave on a melee, it works against each other". In reality, it synergized quite perfectly, as you have a strong (see above) gap filler between the (quickened) bursts that have a cooldown. I'd look at it the other way around, it's a melee crit build in essence, that happens to have a better cleave and greater cleave.

- Regarding the sarcasm about 'fantasy' melee DPS. This build takes two weapon lines as feats and has a stellar crit profile at level 5 (if you frontload bard levels, which loses a few skillpoints in the end), attack speed, doublestrike from various sources and shield bashes. Swashbuckling splash is quite powerful for a low AP / level investment and it's powerful early. That hasn't changed mechanically one bit imho.

- Regarding fascinate, it's not a big main feature, more a mentionable 'added free bonus' with bard levels and perform ranks (which you would take anyway to boost sonic spellpower). It's about as easy or hard to use as on any other build, at least turning off aura temporarily doesn't faze you one bit. If it's a zerg, Fascinate is the wrong tool, otherwise, it needs positioning and aiming.

- There are also some basic build synergies: consolidating a lot to charisma, stacking prr/mrr/dodge and the focus on sonic damage. The aura/bursts help here with a weak point of a crit build: high fort enemies like constructs, undead, etc.

- That being said, there certainly are more powerful build options for 'raw zerg dps output', moreso today than five years ago. I'd consider 'aura warlock' the flavor choice here, not so much splashing wisely or creatively from that point on. By going aura, you trade ranged AoE for a player based, less scaling AoE, there's really no compelling reason to do that, if you aim for max zerg speed. (currently, if you're looking for an op build, just go inquisitive or pure sorc, imho.)

- The pure warlock vistani version sounds like a good approach for a 'modern zerg aura lock', I'd assume with a good notch higher DPS starting around 14+, and (much) better scaling on epic levels. To make a fair comparison, it has a lot less to offer defensively and would most likely have no tier 5 in the aura tree. In that case, it would probably be wise to just forget about DC casting altogether and go str based or grab falconry/harper. Vistani is kind of the opposite of a bard splash to build in, high AP cost, but you get a 'full weapon tree', not a 'weapon enhancing half tree'. Very different build, and you have two feats more basically, not needing shield feats.

- Another approach maybe is something like wiz 5 / warlock 15, get the mighty EK cleave and defenses, slap warlock aura and lesser burst on top. With a proper large or tower shield and medium armor, THF, shield feats and bastard or dwarven axe. Maybe splash fighter and run heavy armor even. Running this as PDK comes to mind as well. Not a zerg build, but I'd guess effective, with lots of AoE aggro and still wielding ok sustained DPS and a pretty mean burst. (In the sense of a 'melee warlock past live' build.)

- Fey Pact: it has sonic damage, that goes well with the bard side of things and gives less item headaches.

As I was actually browsing for some inspirations for tank-ish, warlock-y builds, maybe I update this with my next experiment eventually. I surely would build it very differently now, lots has happened in five years.

Whoever necro'ed, thanks for walking me down memory lane, heh. For now, Gladys might not be quite dead yet, but maybe not at the zenith of her vocal abilities anymore.