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

[Vooduspyce]

Avarice is heavy - it's Malice you want (and the thing won't drop for me either )

Finally pulled mine on a reroll last week! I haven't worked it into my gear set yet because I lose a lot of fortification so gotta figure something out. I can slot a heavy fort augment, but that just puts me at barely above 100% and that's not enough. Any have suggestions?

[Gargoyle69]

Finally pulled mine on a reroll last week! I haven't worked it into my gear set yet because I lose a lot of fortification so gotta figure something out. I can slot a heavy fort augment, but that just puts me at barely above 100% and that's not enough. Any have suggestions?

A couple of options I can think of but they're trade-offs you might not want to make :
* if you're still running in US you could rejig a couple of points to pick up Brace For Impact (+40% Fortification)
* if you're not using Dark Fire after the nerf, you could reallocate some points from Drow into Soul Eater for Inhuman Nature 1 and /or 2 (+25% Fortification per)
* if your guild has access to the fort buff but isn't using it currently, you could consider juggling amenities around to include that (IIRC it's +15%?)

Any of those help?

[Arctigis]

Finally pulled mine on a reroll last week! I haven't worked it into my gear set yet because I lose a lot of fortification so gotta figure something out. I can slot a heavy fort augment, but that just puts me at barely above 100% and that's not enough. Any have suggestions?

45% from BF and Martial PLs. Heavy fort augment, anywhere you can slot insightful?

[Vooduspyce]

45% from BF and Martial PLs. Heavy fort augment, anywhere you can slot insightful?

I'm probably just going to craft a slavers belt and put 185 fort on it. My hesitation there is that there's not much left for me to put on the other tiers and I really wanted to add another LGS opposition item. I'm not going to make any changes right now though, as I suspect the u36 loot will be previewed very soon. I'm also not going to stress about endgame gear much right now because there will probably be a tectonic shift in gearing once the expansion comes out in the fall. Mostly RRing Gingerspyce right now and just using Voodu to raid with the guild.

[Jappy]

Hey,
Love the videos big fan, but what feat would I replace if I wanted to take completionist?

[Vooduspyce]

Hey,
Love the videos big fan, but what feat would I replace if I wanted to take completionist?

Hey Jappy, ty glad you like the vids! I think the Toughness feats are the easiest to lose in my lineup. Alternatively you could forgo Epic Damage Reduction.

[Jappy]

Hey Jappy, ty glad you like the vids! I think the Toughness feats are the easiest to lose in my lineup. Alternatively you could forgo Epic Damage Reduction.

So I wouldnt take it till level 26 or 30 at that point?

[Vooduspyce]

So I wouldnt take it till level 26 or 30 at that point?

You could push the shield feats and take it as early as 12. I wouldn't recommend replacing or pushing any of the earlier feats.

[wizzy_catt]

ENHANCEMENTS



For Reaper 1-20 I highly recommend Wand and Scroll Mastery enhancement in Tainted Scholar, which is very nice to boost healing from wands and scrolls on self and others, which helps to mitigate some of the self-healing penalties in reaper mode.


EPIC DESTINY



Unyielding Sentinel. The high defenses of this epic destiny work well with the close-quarters bursting playstyle of an Enlightened Spirit. There are higher dps destinies for an Enlightened Spirit warlock, such as Exalted Angel, Divine Crusader and Shiradi Champion. I prefer the added surviveability of Sentinel over the added dps of the others.

After amassing a large number of the defensive epic past lives, I found the added defenses of Sentinel were not necessary for regular questing, even legendary elites. While I was preferring Divine Crusader for regular questing, reaper mode has taken me back to Sentinel full time. I highly recommend Sentinel for regular questing for newer players using my build and for those without a bunch of past lives, especially if doing epic and legendary elites and epic reaper questing.

Are the photo links broken? I cannot see them.

[Vooduspyce]

Are the photo links broken? I cannot see them.

It's working for me. The images are hosted on postimg.org, are you able to see other images on that site? Maybe a pop up blocker?

[zegramghart]

Hey Voodu! Been playing this build for the past couple months on Sarlona. I've actually played along side Gingerspyce a few times =D. Really been enjoying the class and has become my new favorite in the game. I do have a few things that I've come across I'm not sure about and would appreciate your incite.

The first being Evard's. I noticed it is nice to have in Heroic's but after being in Epic's for a bit I'm starting to doubt if it really does anything. Honestly I forget to use this spell sometimes in favor of Sleetstorm plus there's the fact that it only lasts a short 10 seconds. I recently swapped it out for Teleport for convenience but I saw we also get Flesh to Stone and wondered if that would be a better use of a spell slot?

The other spell I have used and swapped out is Trap the Soul. Now I do not believe this to be a bad spell, when it works it's nice but I find that without lowering an opponent's level first with Enervation or Wail it's only so-so. Speaking of Wail I swapped out Trap the Soul for it because it's sort of a double positive spell, there's no negative to it, imo. If I'm surrounded and I use Wail of the Banshee and half the group dies... yay, if half save and drop 1-4 levels... yay.

One last thing I was thinking about was swapping Improved Shield mastery for Shield deflection simply because once you get high enough Prr/Mrr increasing them further seems like too much investment and too little reward BUT I am not sure how Shield deflection works - meaning if it stacks or goes before/after protection/resist.

Sorry for dragging on a bit but like I said I really like the class/build and have been testing out a lot of different tactics.
Looking forward to playing with you again. - Nuttmeg

[Vooduspyce]

Hey Voodu! Been playing this build for the past couple months on Sarlona. I've actually played along side Gingerspyce a few times =D. Really been enjoying the class and has become my new favorite in the game. I do have a few things that I've come across I'm not sure about and would appreciate your incite.

The first being Evard's. I noticed it is nice to have in Heroic's but after being in Epic's for a bit I'm starting to doubt if it really does anything. Honestly I forget to use this spell sometimes in favor of Sleetstorm plus there's the fact that it only lasts a short 10 seconds. I recently swapped it out for Teleport for convenience but I saw we also get Flesh to Stone and wondered if that would be a better use of a spell slot?

The other spell I have used and swapped out is Trap the Soul. Now I do not believe this to be a bad spell, when it works it's nice but I find that without lowering an opponent's level first with Enervation or Wail it's only so-so. Speaking of Wail I swapped out Trap the Soul for it because it's sort of a double positive spell, there's no negative to it, imo. If I'm surrounded and I use Wail of the Banshee and half the group dies... yay, if half save and drop 1-4 levels... yay.

One last thing I was thinking about was swapping Improved Shield mastery for Shield deflection simply because once you get high enough Prr/Mrr increasing them further seems like too much investment and too little reward BUT I am not sure how Shield deflection works - meaning if it stacks or goes before/after protection/resist.

Sorry for dragging on a bit but like I said I really like the class/build and have been testing out a lot of different tactics.
Looking forward to playing with you again. - Nuttmeg

Hey Nuttmeg, I will not give you incite, but I am happy to provide you with insight if I can

I'm glad you're enjoying it your own version of the Voodu Warlock. Trap the soul is just there for me to farm soul gems. Wail or whatever spell you like is a better choice. I prob should switch to that, since I haven't been farming any soul gems lately.

Forgoing Improved Shield Mastery will result in 10 less PRR, with the loss of 5 from the feat and 5 from Legendary Shield Mastery enhancement in Unyielding Sentinel. I've never used Shield Deflection, so really a judgement call and I suppose it would depend somewhat on playstyle. As to whether or not the PRR is worth it, I would encourage you to read through All you need to know about PRR in one thread before making your choice. If you decide to use Shield Deflection, I would love to hear what you think of it after you've played with it for a while.

I found myself not using Evard's or Sleet Storm in the last months leading up to reaper mode. Now with reaper mode upon us, I'm back to using and appreciating both. I find Evard's helpful in reaper questing and would recommend you teleport with scrolls.

Hope that helps a bit

[TDarkchylde]

Hey Voo, I don't need to know this, but I'm willing to bet there's someone following the build now who might be curious or worried.

How do you see the U36 Warlock/Enlightened Spirit changes affecting the build?

[Vooduspyce]

Hey Voo, I don't need to know this, but I'm willing to bet there's someone following the build now who might be curious or worried.

How do you see the U36 Warlock/Enlightened Spirit changes affecting the build?

Sorry took so long to respond to this. Been really busy and I wanted to give a thoughtful response.

The u36 warlock changes are a smoothing of the dps curve and as the devs have stated, by level 26, as long as we've taken Epic Eldritch Blast and Epic Arcane Eldritch Blast feats, then there will be no difference at that point. Any dps warlock should take those feats, however you must have 12 levels of warlock to be able to take them, which means that splash warlocks will suffer and even more so in epic levels. For endgame pure warlocks there is no difference.

I used to recommend for people that wanted to knock out a class life that they didn't want to play to just do 9 warlock plus 11 of whatever other class they wanted the past life of and just play it as a warlock. It's what I did for some class lives. There was so much dps with just the 9 levels of warlock that I could breeze through soloing all heroic elite content for the trouble of pressing 2 buttons. Hence the name "easylock". I think this is a clear indication that the dps curve needed adjustment. I even used the 9 warlock configuration to get to 30 on some iconic lives and it was generally a breeze through dailies to get to 30, though the first epic levels were a bit rough, as dps was kinda low for EE streaking. I probably will no longer make this recommendation, as I suspect 9 levels of warlock won't be enough to carry us through heroic levels, but we'll see.

The folks that will be most upset by the u36 changes are those looking to use the warlock easy button to blow through their racial lives and those wanting to use 9 levels of warlock for their class past lives. I have no defense for a class that can lay waste to everything for the effort of pressing 2 buttons.

Overall I'm not worried about it. I'm sure that warlocks will still be fun to play and that they will be a strong class in heroics. I am solely focused on Gingerspyce's racial lives right now and Voodu is parked at cap and just being used for raids, so I won't get a chance to experience the changes on Voodu any time soon. I may run Gingerspyce as Voodu's build for a racial life to see and experience how the changes are in heroics for myself.

[Arctigis]

Sorry took so long to respond to this. Been really busy and I wanted to give a thoughtful response.

The u36 warlock changes are a smoothing of the dps curve and as the devs have stated, by level 26, as long as we've taken Epic Eldritch Blast and Epic Arcane Eldritch Blast feats, then there will be no difference at that point. Any dps warlock should take those feats, however you must have 12 levels of warlock to be able to take them, which means that splash warlocks will suffer and even more so in epic levels. For endgame pure warlocks there is no difference.

I used to recommend for people that wanted to knock out a class life that they didn't want to play to just do 9 warlock plus 11 of whatever other class they wanted the past life of and just play it as a warlock. It's what I did for some class lives. There was so much dps with just the 9 levels of warlock that I could breeze through soloing all heroic elite content for the trouble of pressing 2 buttons. Hence the name "easylock". I think this is a clear indication that the dps curve needed adjustment. I even used the 9 warlock configuration to get to 30 on some iconic lives and it was generally a breeze through dailies to get to 30, though the first epic levels were a bit rough, as dps was kinda low for EE streaking. I probably will no longer make this recommendation, as I suspect 9 levels of warlock won't be enough to carry us through heroic levels, but we'll see.

The folks that will be most upset by the u36 changes are those looking to use the warlock easy button to blow through their racial lives and those wanting to use 9 levels of warlock for their class past lives. I have no defense for a class that can lay waste to everything for the effort of pressing 2 buttons.

Overall I'm not worried about it. I'm sure that warlocks will still be fun to play and that they will be a strong class in heroics. I am solely focused on Gingerspyce's racial lives right now and Voodu is parked at cap and just being used for raids, so I won't get a chance to experience the changes on Voodu any time soon. I may run Gingerspyce as Voodu's build for a racial life to see and experience how the changes are in heroics for myself.

So you see the only significant part of the nerf as the blast damage. You won't notice the reduction in dice in Eldritch Burst and Spirit Blast?

[Vooduspyce]

So you see the only significant part of the nerf as the blast damage. You won't notice the reduction in dice in Eldritch Burst and Spirit Blast?

I'm saying it doesn't bother me.

[Arctigis]

I'm saying it doesn't bother me.

Thanks for clarifying. Your post stated that damage dice would be back to where
they were if both epic feats are taken. This only applies to the blast damage hence
my confusion.

For reference purposes only, light damage in ES from bursts:

(I'm assuming all three tiers of Retribution for +3D6/+3D4)
Current:
L12:
Eldritch Burst 3D6 + 3D6
Spirit Blast 10D6 + 3D6
Total = 19D6 (avg. = 66.5)

L18+:
+ 6D6 for L18 core
Total = 25D6 (avg. = 87.5)

U36:
L12:
Eldritch Burst 1D6 + 3D4
Spirit Blast 4D6 + 3D4
Total = 5D6 + 6D4 (avg. = 32.5)

L18+:
+ 6D6 for L18 core
Total = 11D6 + 6D4 (avg. = 53.5)

[Vooduspyce]

Thanks for clarifying. Your post stated that damage dice would be back to where
they were if both epic feats are taken. This only applies to the blast damage hence
my confusion.

For reference purposes only, light damage in ES from bursts:

(I'm assuming all three tiers of Retribution for +3D6/+3D4)
Current:
L12:
Eldritch Burst 3D6 + 3D6
Spirit Blast 10D6 + 3D6
Total = 19D6 (avg. = 66.5)

L18+:
+ 6D6 for L18 core
Total = 25D6 (avg. = 87.5)

U36:
L12:
Eldritch Burst 1D6 + 3D4
Spirit Blast 4D6 + 3D4
Total = 5D6 + 6D4 (avg. = 32.5)

L18+:
+ 6D6 for L18 core
Total = 11D6 + 6D4 (avg. = 53.5)

I may have misunderstood what the dev claims were about the changes. It looks like you are saying that light damage is permanently attenuated, even beyond level 26. But I'm still not worried about it.

[Arctigis]

I may have misunderstood what the dev claims were about the changes. It looks like you are saying that light damage is permanently attenuated, even beyond level 26.

Yes, that's what is happening.

But I'm still not worried about it.

Thanks. I posted the numbers as a reference for the changes. I can remove them
if you want - it's your thread.

[Vooduspyce]

Yes, that's what is happening.



Thanks. I posted the numbers as a reference for the changes. I can remove them
if you want - it's your thread.

It's good reference, ty for posting