Xuul - The Fiendish Hellhound - 18 / 2 Warlock Druid SWF Wolf Build

[Sydril]

**Updated with some current information, I'll add ED info a little later**

This build utilizes the very high attack speed of the SWF wolf form with scaling light damage from enlightened spirits tier 4 ability spiritual retribution. It possesses very high survivability common to most warlocks. It manages to be an extremely effective single target damage deal and debuffer. Many of the of Soul Eater enhancements do significant debuffs that affect red and purples named mobs. 20% vulnerability, -10 PRR, -10 MRR, -10 SR, -4 Fort saves, -20 Melee, Ranged & Spell Power. These are some very underutilized abilities.


For leveling this build from scratch I would recommend druid at 1 & 2 and the rest in warlock.

Fiend Pact is the best Pact choice, great synergies for utility with fire shield, hurl through hell, and rage. Fort saves on blasts and fort debuff offered in Soul Eater.

Skills:
Balance 7 ranks, Concentration, Spellcraft, UMD, Spot by preference

Starting stats can vary *widely* by preference. I went with a fairly balanced approach with a 36 point:

14 Strength
14 Dex
14 Con
13 Int (happened to be on a +3 int tome)
8 Wisdom (You'll need to boost this early on for druid spells if you dump stat it)
17 Charisma (level ups in charisma for Hurl Through Hell dc, Pact dc, Stricken dc and other perks, I just didn't see the merit of going strength although this build focuses often on melee when not blasting auras)

Feats:
1: Single Weapon Fighting, Extend
3: Maximize
6: Empower
9: Quicken
12: Improved Single Weapon Fighting
15: Improved Critical: Bludgeon
18: Greater Single Weapon Fighting
21: Overwhelming Critical
24: Intensify Spell
26: Epic Light Spell Power
27: Epic Damage Reduction
28: Perfect Single Weapon Fighting
29: Deific Warding
20: Scion of the Plane of Fire (or Celestia)

Spells:
Druid: Lesser Vigor, Ram's Might, Magic Fang
Warlock:
1: Command, Feather Fall, Jump, Shield
2: Blur, Invisibility, Rage, Web
3: Haste, Dimension Door, Fire Shield
4: Binding Chain, Protection from Elements, Teleport
5: Power Word Blindness, Greater Teleport, Tenser's Transformation
6: Mordenkainen's Disjunction (for spell wards)

The spells selected were based on my personal preference with an intention on staying focused on melee, and not having to change out of animal form to use scrolls.
!Of Note! The combination of wolf form *and* Tenser's makes for some VERY long spell cooldowns.

Enhancements:


print screen windows

[unbongwah]

I don't understand: what are you gaining from wolf form? The melee DPS will be quite low by epic standards. I thought maybe it was just to apply Beguile, but you don't spend any APs on SH. Am I missing something?

[Sydril]

I don't understand: what are you gaining from wolf form? The melee DPS will be quite low by epic standards. I thought maybe it was just to apply Beguile, but you don't spend any APs on SH. Am I missing something?

The effects of having light damage that scales with spell power added to damage from melee attacks actually adds significant dps when that light damage is doing ~100+ damage a tick, on single target attacks it actually ends up being more than the damage done by bursts because of the speed of the attacks over the timing on the bursts.

Granted this isn't the highest dps out there for warlocks, but it actually is functional.

[unbongwah]

I see, so the idea is Spiritual Retribution does the "heavy lifting" of your melee DPS and you're just taking advantage of SWF+wolf high atk speed? Okay, that makes more sense to me. Maybe not enough sense to make up for giving up ES capstone, but at least I get the point.

[Sydril]

I see, so the idea is Spiritual Retribution does the "heavy lifting" of your melee DPS and you're just taking advantage of SWF+wolf high atk speed? Okay, that makes more sense to me. Maybe not enough sense to make up for giving up ES capstone, but at least I get the point.

For the min max conservative, I'd reccomend the SWF Bastard sword PDK knight pure with CHA to damage. Does the same job even better, but just doesn't have that puppy panache.

I've been rocking this build for a while now, it's pretty solid.

[unbongwah]

For the min max conservative, I'd reccomend the SWF Bastard sword PDK knight pure with CHA to damage. Does the same job even better, but just doesn't have that puppy panache.

That was more or less my plan for one of my next lives, except using short swords since I've got a Celestia banked away. But this thread gives me ideas on how to tweak it, so thanks for the info.

[Zzevel]

Posting...

There is no Xuul... only Dana!

[Sydril]

There is no Xuul... only Dana!

My little level 2 puppy's name is Gozer.

[Sydril]

That was more or less my plan for one of my next lives, except using short swords since I've got a Celestia banked away. But this thread gives me ideas on how to tweak it, so thanks for the info.

After some consideration I managed to exchange ES permanent shield for 1 rank in the resist sla and drop the displacement sla and ddoor (still have scrolls anyway) for two ranks in beguile (3 ap spent in season's herald), couldn't squeeze that 3 rank out but I'm having a go at it. It seems to make a little difference on the champs and I wouldn't have thought about the juggle to work it in otherwise.

[Sydril]

Updated with most current information, I'm still experimenting with some ED's but I'll update with details when finished!

[ValariusK]

Ever consider integrating 2-6 ranger levels into this?
4 warlock 10 druid 6 ranger might be an interesting alternative to the traditional 4 fighter/6 ranger/10 druid wolf build.
You'd trade off 3 feats for the warlock goodies.

[Sydril]

Ever consider integrating 2-6 ranger levels into this?
4 warlock 10 druid 6 ranger might be an interesting alternative to the traditional 4 fighter/6 ranger/10 druid wolf build.
You'd trade off 3 feats for the warlock goodies.

That would be a very viable build, however I haven't considered it just because of the whole off hand attack bug / exploit / lazy attention fixing from the dev community at large. I went warlock to maximize on aura damage but there are quite of few variations of this build that would be quite effective.

The 2 wolf / 5-6 warlock / x class build could easily be a tr template for heroic and epic past lives

[SealedInSong]

Thanks for sharing, unique build! If I had a penny for every pure enlightened spirit floating around...

Quick question: isn't SWF on shapeshifted forms ALSO not working as intended, similar to TWF stacking?

My understanding of the dev intentions with shapeshifting is that it's essentially only supposed to be unarmed combat, with natural fighting feats adding doublestrike, but no other fighting "styles" (SWF, TWF, THF) intended to stack.

I'm pretty sure this is the case, and which is why I haven't fiddled around with any combat styles while shapeshifted as I don't care to get used to something that's not WAI.

That would be a very viable build, however I haven't considered it just because of the whole off hand attack bug / exploit / lazy attention fixing from the dev community at large. I went warlock to maximize on aura damage but there are quite of few variations of this build that would be quite effective.

The 2 wolf / 5-6 warlock / x class build could easily be a tr template for heroic and epic past lives

[Sydril]

Thanks for sharing, unique build! If I had a penny for every pure enlightened spirit floating around...

Quick question: isn't SWF on shapeshifted forms ALSO not working as intended, similar to TWF stacking?

My understanding of the dev intentions with shapeshifting is that it's essentially only supposed to be unarmed combat, with natural fighting feats adding doublestrike, but no other fighting "styles" (SWF, TWF, THF) intended to stack.

I'm pretty sure this is the case, and which is why I haven't fiddled around with any combat styles while shapeshifted as I don't care to get used to something that's not WAI.

SWF in wild shape is currently WAI I believe. I think the issue is with TWF and its exclusivity with SWF not functioning correctly (and allowing for twf to be granted through ranger splashes), which is really also about the coding for Wild Shapes in the first place since they should not proc off hand attacks at all.

[Kadrios]

Out of interest, which destiny would be be running this in? (I am assuming LD, but not sure if there are others worth considering for this build concept)

[Sydril]

Out of interest, which destiny would be be running this in? (I am assuming LD, but not sure if there are others worth considering for this build concept)

Running LD for now working on a couple double strike past life feats. I had originally expected to be somewhere in the divine sphere on this build but dreadnaught has been much better given the synergies with attack speed and blitz. I haven't done so yet but I'm looking at crafting a LGS Battle Axe for the extra crit multiplier.

I had expected to use Celestia quite often however due to murky code typing issues the light damage is not being typed in animal form. For gereral purpose dr bypassing a Turbulent Epee is actually a pretty great choice for this build. Other weapons I've found useful at various levels are Devourer's Reaping, Axe of Famine, Earth Shatter War Hammer, Epic Dice, and a Con Sacrificial Dagger.