Voodu Warlock: A Pure Warlock Enlightened Spirit Tank Project companion thread

[LargoKeyWest]

Stanch: Activate for 7 Depravity: Gain temporary hitpoints equal to 50% of your maximum hitpoints. These last for 1 minute. You have -3% maximum hitpoints until you rest, which stacks up to 33 times.

The -3% max hp loss can start taking a toll if used a bunch between rests

So essentially the Law of Diminishing Returns with an edge, as every time you use it, you get less from it and the less your pool is to rely on. Got it

[sk3l3t0r]

I recently TR'ed into this build out of your Druid build (I loved that build lots and TR'ed my other toon into it permanently, that's how much I love the druid tank / caster build)

I am struggling with the warlock class... healing is my biggest issue, at level 11 now (12 banked, almost XP capped for 13) CSW pots just i not good enough and my UMD is not quite good enough yet for Heal scrolls.

What am I doing wrong? the DPS seems weak...I wish I knew what gear I should be using, I've tried some light / force gear to boost my spellpower, crit range and so on. I find myself kitting LOTS...not very tanky at all... as soon as I get 2-3 mobs on me I am dead.

Any kind of guidance on gear / tactics for mid level heroics would be appreciated. I am getting ready to head into Threnal and will be taking level 12 shortly...I was hoping it would get better, and so far the DPS seems to be improving, but the healing is still a big challenge. I find myself having to use Cleric hires (which I hate using) as a workaround just to stay alive.

I am finding my warlock life to be really annoying and considering a Heroic TR at 20 and not even bothering going into epics just to get it over with...I am seriously having a hard time adjusting to this build compared to the druid build so any advice would be appreciated to change my experience.

[Vooduspyce]

I recently TR'ed into this build out of your Druid build (I loved that build lots and TR'ed my other toon into it permanently, that's how much I love the druid tank / caster build)

I am struggling with the warlock class... healing is my biggest issue, at level 11 now (12 banked, almost XP capped for 13) CSW pots just i not good enough and my UMD is not quite good enough yet for Heal scrolls.

What am I doing wrong? the DPS seems weak...I wish I knew what gear I should be using, I've tried some light / force gear to boost my spellpower, crit range and so on. I find myself kitting LOTS...not very tanky at all... as soon as I get 2-3 mobs on me I am dead.

Any kind of guidance on gear / tactics for mid level heroics would be appreciated. I am getting ready to head into Threnal and will be taking level 12 shortly...I was hoping it would get better, and so far the DPS seems to be improving, but the healing is still a big challenge. I find myself having to use Cleric hires (which I hate using) as a workaround just to stay alive.

I am finding my warlock life to be really annoying and considering a Heroic TR at 20 and not even bothering going into epics just to get it over with...I am seriously having a hard time adjusting to this build compared to the druid build so any advice would be appreciated to change my experience.

Hey Sk3l3, something doesn't sound right, but it's hard for me to say.

My first suggestion is for you to take a look at my L11 video from the Voodu Warlock series and see how the performance compares to your experience. In the beginning of the video I go over what gear I'm using, so that should give you some good ideas too. Note that in the video, Voodu only has caster heroic past lives and only 1 epic past life, so the performance isn't past life dependent.

I found warlock to be extremely easy to play, very survivable with the Enlightened Spirit, lots more dps than my druid and tons of fun. Self healing is definitely not as strong as the druid, but there are lots of temp hp thingies for warlock, which act as your front-end healing. At L11 the temp hp stuff would include Brilliance ticking from the aura, Feigned Health and Stanch. You'll see a big turning point at L12 because you get Shining Through, which is the single most valuable self-healing component of an Enlightened Spirit. Brilliance is also really awesome and takes care of smaller maintenance healing. You'll also get your second burst at L12, so you'll see a significant increase in dps too.

With a decent set of armor and shield, along with all the bonuses from your aura, you should find no problem with surviveability at L11 (I assuming you're doing elite 9's at that point). And if you have maximize and empower, your burst should be wrecking everything in your path. You shouldn't have to kite anything. Check out the vid to compare!

Hope that helps and after you've had a chance to compare things and make adjustments, let me know how it goes

[Socio]

I recently TR'ed into this build out of your Druid build (I loved that build lots and TR'ed my other toon into it permanently, that's how much I love the druid tank / caster build)

I am struggling with the warlock class... healing is my biggest issue, at level 11 now (12 banked, almost XP capped for 13) CSW pots just i not good enough and my UMD is not quite good enough yet for Heal scrolls.

What am I doing wrong? the DPS seems weak...I wish I knew what gear I should be using, I've tried some light / force gear to boost my spellpower, crit range and so on. I find myself kitting LOTS...not very tanky at all... as soon as I get 2-3 mobs on me I am dead.

Any kind of guidance on gear / tactics for mid level heroics would be appreciated. I am getting ready to head into Threnal and will be taking level 12 shortly...I was hoping it would get better, and so far the DPS seems to be improving, but the healing is still a big challenge. I find myself having to use Cleric hires (which I hate using) as a workaround just to stay alive.

I am finding my warlock life to be really annoying and considering a Heroic TR at 20 and not even bothering going into epics just to get it over with...I am seriously having a hard time adjusting to this build compared to the druid build so any advice would be appreciated to change my experience.

I Recently switched to this build as well and I had no problems coasting through levels with it. I kept and maintained my spellpower appropriate to my level and practically wore out of the chest lootgen all the way to 20. The temporary Hp replenishing was more then enough to keep me going and every now and then I would need a heal which after some enhancement play I took 3 tiers of wand and scroll mastery and CSW Scrolls.

If using the aura and bursts is problematic don't be afraid to use the chain shape and do some dancing with the mobs. Utterdark Blast Is your friend and helps keep you down to two spellpowers. Hope this helps abit

Hey Sk3l3, something doesn't sound right, but it's hard for me to say.

My first suggestion is for you to take a look at my L11 video from the Voodu Warlock series and see how the performance compares to your experience. In the beginning of the video I go over what gear I'm using, so that should give you some good ideas too. Note that in the video, Voodu only has caster heroic past lives and only 1 epic past life, so the performance isn't past life dependent.

I found warlock to be extremely easy to play, very survivable with the Enlightened Spirit, lots more dps than my druid and tons of fun. Self healing is definitely not as strong as the druid, but there are lots of temp hp thingies for warlock, which act as your front-end healing. At L11 the temp hp stuff would include Brilliance ticking from the aura, Feigned Health and Stanch. You'll see a big turning point at L12 because you get Shining Through, which is the single most valuable self-healing component of an Enlightened Spirit. Brilliance is also really awesome and takes care of smaller maintenance healing. You'll also get your second burst at L12, so you'll see a significant increase in dps too.

With a decent set of armor and shield, along with all the bonuses from your aura, you should find no problem with surviveability at L11 (I assuming you're doing elite 9's at that point). And if you have maximize and empower, your burst should be wrecking everything in your path. You shouldn't have to kite anything. Check out the vid to compare!

Hope that helps and after you've had a chance to compare things and make adjustments, let me know how it goes

Excellent build and by far one of my favorites! +1

[SilkofDrasnia]

Just bought Warlock class and was looking for basic information on them when I ran across this...really enjoyed the videos, watched up to solo DQ, and will be using your series as a reference as I level up.

Kudos on sharing and the work you put into these videos!

I made my Warlock before I saw your stuff and so my stats are different, also it's 32pt build not 36 so 18cha, 16con, 15int rest at 8. The quick guide I saw suggested:

1 Spell Focus: Evocation
1h Force of Personality
1w Fey Pact
3 Greater Spell Focus: Evocation (if Wizard past life, Past Life: Arcane Initiate)
6 Maximize Spell
9 Empower Spell
12 Quicken Spell
15 Spell Penetration (if Wizard past life, Greater Spell Focus: Evocation)
18 Heighten Spell

Epic Feats

21 Epic Eldritch Blast
24 Epic Spell Focus: Evocation
26d Epic Arcane Eldritch Blast
27 Ruin
28d Hellball

would like your thoughts on it, my guess you didn't take any evo focus feat due to having that from PL? Also I have been using master touch to use scimitar and shield, I am guessing you wanted the +mrr, 3%doublestrike from shield mastery?

[Vooduspyce]

Just bought Warlock class and was looking for basic information on them when I ran across this...really enjoyed the videos, watched up to solo DQ, and will be using your series as a reference as I level up.

Kudos on sharing and the work you put into these videos!

I made my Warlock before I saw your stuff and so my stats are different, also it's 32pt build not 36 so 18cha, 16con, 15int rest at 8. The quick guide I saw suggested:

1 Spell Focus: Evocation
1h Force of Personality
1w Fey Pact
3 Greater Spell Focus: Evocation (if Wizard past life, Past Life: Arcane Initiate)
6 Maximize Spell
9 Empower Spell
12 Quicken Spell
15 Spell Penetration (if Wizard past life, Greater Spell Focus: Evocation)
18 Heighten Spell

Epic Feats

21 Epic Eldritch Blast
24 Epic Spell Focus: Evocation
26d Epic Arcane Eldritch Blast
27 Ruin
28d Hellball

would like your thoughts on it, my guess you didn't take any evo focus feat due to having that from PL? Also I have been using master touch to use scimitar and shield, I am guessing you wanted the +mrr, 3%doublestrike from shield mastery?

Hey Silk, I'm glad you found the videos and stuff handy, thanks for saying!

Enlightened Spirit tier 3 innate gives proficiency with all martial weapons, so I'm guessing by your use of master's touch and your feat set that you are doing a blasting/casting Tainted Scholar or Souleater kind of a build. Voodu is an Enlightened Spirit bursting tank so is a different warlock concept/playstyle. Looks like you're covering your bases just fine with your choices, which are all solid choices for warlock. I took the shield feats for the PRR since I'm a tank, as is also why I didn't take evocation feats, preferring more defensive choices for the type of build. I realize that I'm sacrificing some dps due to my choices, but warlock dps is already strong, and I'm not a min/max power gamer, so I'm content with the dps I'm doing. The doublestrike from shield feats is irrelevant to me, as 95% of my dps is from bursts.

Hope that helps and if you have other specific questions about things, I am happy to offer more input

[SilkofDrasnia]

Hey Silk, I'm glad you found the videos and stuff handy, thanks for saying!

Enlightened Spirit tier 3 innate gives proficiency with all martial weapons, so I'm guessing by your use of master's touch and your feat set that you are doing a blasting/casting Tainted Scholar or Souleater kind of a build. Voodu is an Enlightened Spirit bursting tank so is a different warlock concept/playstyle. Looks like you're covering your bases just fine with your choices, which are all solid choices for warlock. I took the shield feats for the PRR since I'm a tank, as is also why I didn't take evocation feats, preferring more defensive choices for the type of build. I realize that I'm sacrificing some dps due to my choices, but warlock dps is already strong, and I'm not a min/max power gamer, so I'm content with the dps I'm doing. The doublestrike from shield feats is irrelevant to me, as 95% of my dps is from bursts.

Hope that helps and if you have other specific questions about things, I am happy to offer more input

Yeah I was originally going to do a TS with some ES but after a couple levels I was finding the pew pew from blast annoying to aim at critters lol and I found your stuff so I think I want to switch to something like you have.

I gather from your reply you feel the shield feats are worth taking over evo focus so will probably switch them out, as for the epic stuff well I haven't played much in awhile so there's a bunch of epic feats I have no experience with or idea how well they work.

[Vooduspyce]

Yeah I was originally going to do a TS with some ES but after a couple levels I was finding the pew pew from blast annoying to aim at critters lol and I found your stuff so I think I want to switch to something like you have.

I gather from your reply you feel the shield feats are worth taking over evo focus so will probably switch them out, as for the epic stuff well I haven't played much in awhile so there's a bunch of epic feats I have no experience with or idea how well they work.

The shield feats are probably only worth it if you want to be extra survivable. If you are potentially still interested in doing a blaster, try cone shape, it's awesome. Much better than it looks. Takes a few levels to get used to it but has a very large AOE that is much bigger than the graphic would suggest. With cone shape, one thing that can help with the annoyance factor is to turn off auto target and keep yourself targeted so you don't get casting failure due to the quirky game targeting mechanics. I would suggest you give that a try before you spend resources to rework things too much.

[Rig_O_Mortis]

Thank you for posting your build. I’m trying it out on my newest perma-death toon. So far, things are going well i.e., I’m still alive at level 5.

Is the spell failure associated with using armor and a shield mitigated somehow, or is it just not an issue since the burst takes care of things quickly?

[Livmo]

Thank you for posting your build. I’m trying it out on my newest perma-death toon. So far, things are going well i.e., I’m still alive at level 5.

Is the spell failure associated with using armor and a shield mitigated somehow, or is it just not an issue since the burst takes care of things quickly?

It depends, there is some good info. here, http://ddowiki.com/page/Arcane_spell_failure

For example I use the SLAs and don't sweat ASF, but when I want to use spells like Evard's Black Tentacles I suffer from ASF. I tend to use the blue augments and armors to reduc ASF for my non-SLAs like Evard's Black Tentacles.

[Rig_O_Mortis]

It depends, there is some good info. here, http://ddowiki.com/page/Arcane_spell_failure

For example I use the SLAs and don't sweat ASF, but when I want to use spells like Evard's Black Tentacles I suffer from ASF. I tend to use the blue augments and armors to reduc ASF for my non-SLAs like Evard's Black Tentacles.

Thanks for the link and the information on how you deal with ASF, Livmo!

[Livmo]

Thanks for the link and the information on how you deal with ASF, Livmo!

Not sure if you can still craft these or not since all the changes, but worth a look. If I splash I try to get free Heavy Armor Prof for more options.

[Rig_O_Mortis]

Not sure if you can still craft these or not since all the changes, but worth a look. If I splash I try to get free Heavy Armor Prof for more options.

WOW! Thanks for the additional info. Now I just need to get the stuff since we can only play what we find.

[Vooduspyce]

Thank you for posting your build. I’m trying it out on my newest perma-death toon. So far, things are going well i.e., I’m still alive at level 5.

Is the spell failure associated with using armor and a shield mitigated somehow, or is it just not an issue since the burst takes care of things quickly?

hmmm... Warlocks get no ASF while using light armor, which I use until I get medium armor proficiency in the enhancement tree, which also grants zero ASF for medium armor.

For the shield, I used a small mithral shield that I crafted onto until I got Fanion (which has no ASF) at L14 and Skyvault (which has no ASF) at L25 and then at L28 I switch to the Shield of Tireless Aid. By level 20, the ASF from any large shield can be negated by using an augment. Hopefully between that and Livmo's link you can find a path to eliminate ASF

[Rig_O_Mortis]

hmmm... Warlocks get no ASF while using light armor, which I use until I get medium armor proficiency in the enhancement tree, which also grants zero ASF for medium armor.

For the shield, I used a small mithral shield that I crafted onto until I got Fanion (which has no ASF) at L14 and Skyvault (which has no ASF) at L25 and then at L28 I switch to the Shield of Tireless Aid. By level 20, the ASF from any large shield can be negated by using an augment. Hopefully between that and Livmo's link you can find a path to eliminate ASF

Thank you for the information on what you're using.

I read in the Wiki that Warlocks didn't have ASF with light armor, but this is what I get:




No matter what light armor I wear, I have some ASF (with leather, it's 10%).

[Vooduspyce]

Thank you for the information on what you're using.

I read in the Wiki that Warlocks didn't have ASF with light armor, but this is what I get:




No matter what light armor I wear, I have some ASF (with leather, it's 10%).

Are you pure warlock? I think it may still display on the armor, but are you seeing ASF rolls when you blast, burst and cast? Hover over one of your spells to see if it shows ASF in the description (it will appear in red)

[LargoKeyWest]

Thank you for the information on what you're using.

I read in the Wiki that Warlocks didn't have ASF with light armor, but this is what I get:

No matter what light armor I wear, I have some ASF (with leather, it's 10%).

Not sure what you read, but the only way you don't have ASF with armor that lists as HAVING ASF is you take the enhancement in ES tree to eliminate it. Otherwise you need an augment to remove it (up to 15%). All proficiency guarantees is action penalty removal.

BTW.. the SLA blasts are also vulnerable to ASF.. no matter what anyone here says. If you want to be free of it, take the enhancement to remove it.

[Rig_O_Mortis]

Not sure what you read, but the only way you don't have ASF with armor that lists as HAVING ASF is you take the enhancement in ES tree to eliminate it. Otherwise you need an augment to remove it (up to 15%). All proficiency guarantees is action penalty removal.

BTW.. the SLA blasts are also vulnerable to ASF.. no matter what anyone here says. If you want to be free of it, take the enhancement to remove it.

Thank you for responding.

I read: Bards and Warlocks[edit]

• Bards and Warlocks are not subject to ASF while wearing Light armor.
• Both have access to a tier 4 enhancement which extends this benefit to Medium armor as well.

found on the ASF wiki: http://ddowiki.com/page/Arcane_spell_failure. I don't understand the discrepancy between the statement above and the 15% spell failure attached to my light armor.

I'm working my way up the ES tree, but I'm not yet to medium armor proficiency. This sounds like the ticket for my P-D, no-twink character since anything I use has to be found in game.

I haven't noticed any failure on the SLA blasts yet, but I have on spells.

[Rig_O_Mortis]

Are you pure warlock? I think it may still display on the armor, but are you seeing ASF rolls when you blast, burst and cast? Hover over one of your spells to see if it shows ASF in the description (it will appear in red)

Yes, pure warlock.

You're right! The armor still displays the ASF without actually assigning any. My spells are showing a 10% ASF, which is the same as my shield. Unequipping my shield eliminates the problem. This makes more sense now.

To do list: Find mithral shield (good luck); get to medium armor proficiency in the ES tree.

Thank you!

[SilkofDrasnia]

Just got lucky and pulled a luck blade from snitch, will go well with my historic skyvault shield I think!