The Warlord

[Blastyswa]

Updated as of u34.

Wow, so this build has gone through a lot of changes. What started as a constitution warlock with dumped DCs playing in Sentinel blessing chests has become a charisma DC warlock playing in Exalted Angel. Now personally, I think this is the best warlock build out there. I'm also biased because this is my warlock build. Best Warlock build out there for me means the best balance of offense and defense, with decent utility as well. With that said, this build is no longer a tank, and shouldn't be played as one unless the content is incredibly easy. I really don't ever play in Sentinel anymore, and I'd strongly suggest anyone who plays this build to go into Exalted Angel.

Things this build can do include:
Solo LN Shroud
Intimidate OR Diplo most things easily (Yes, I still have intimidate with 120 DC. With affirmation I can survive one hit in higher skull reaper, or many hits in low skull/base difficulties, so I still like intimidate to save squishies)
Not gain aggro unless you want to (-20% threat generation souleater, more from items if you use them, much of your damage is concentrated into arcane pulse/ruin spiking, so you can safely attack without much chance of drawing aggro)
High AoE Trash erasing damage with burst-ball-hellball (Yes ball is different from hellball, you'll see later)
Incredibly high (Phase 4 LShroud soloing high) spike damage with 150%+ extra critical damage (Not 50% and the 100% base, 150% and the 100% base) and decent critical chance for spiking ruins and arcane pulse.

And here's the build.
Dazling

Human

20 Warlock

True Neutral

Fey Pact (Considering Fiend, both are great. I wouldn't do GOO)

Str: 8
Dex: 8
Con: 16
Int: 16
Wis: 8
Cha: 18+Level Ups

Notes: Int, Con, and Cha are all important stats for this build. Int/Con affect your saves, as well as HP/Spellcraft, and the build is a charisma DC one so I wouldn't recommend starting any of them at below 16. Wisdom is at 8, but honestly it might be better to start int at 14 and wisdom at 12 because this build doesn't use Force of Personality.

Feats:
Human. Maximize Spell
1. Empower Spell
3. Quicken Spell
6. Completionist (Or move insightful reflexes here if not completionist)
9. Mental Toughness
12. Past Life: Wizard (Replace with Improved Mental Toughness if you don't have)
15. Insightful Reflexes (Replace with Spell Focus: Enchant and take Greater Spell Focus: Enchant as well, or do something else)
18. Spell Focus: Enchant
21. Wellspring of Power
24. Intensify Spell
26. Epic Eldritch Blast
27. Ruin
28. Hellball
29. Arcane Pulse
30. Greater Ruin
Legendary. Scion of Fire

Skills:
I personally maximize Concentration, Intimidate, Jump, Perform, Search, Spellcraft, and Diplomacy, with 2 points in Tumble. If you don't have a +4 or higher int tome, I'd pull points out of Jump first, since the reason for it doesn't affect anyone who isn't stupidly min/maxing.

Spells:
1. Jump, Grease
2. Invisibility, Sleetstorm
3. Displacement, DDoor
4. Evard's, Flesh to Stone
5. Finger of Death, Circle of Death
6. Wail or Trap the Soul (Only if you're into farming soul gems), Mass Hold Monster



I tried to avoid using too much cheesy stuff in the screenshot, so these stats really are about what they are in normal questing. The only ones that might be cheesy are yugo pots and mysterious remnant charisma pot, because while I do have those running 100% of the time in more difficult content, I don't use the rem pot in easier content, and maybe some people thing yugo is cheesy as a consumable, no idea.

Twists of Fate that are blocked are
1. Sense Weakness
2. Empyrean Magic
3. Enchantment Specialization
4. Interrogation
5. Rejuvenation Cocoon

Any questions on specific setup of enhancements/epic destinies will be answered in comments, because I really want to cut down this OP a lot to make it more accessible.

Current Gear:
Key: Item Name (Augments)

Belt: LGS Positive Material Opposition (Good Weapons)
Boots: Slavers +3 Reaper PRR Intelligence/Fire Lore/Spellcraft/Quality Intelligence (Greater Enchantment)
Bracers: Slavers Charisma/Force Lore/Perform/Quality Charisma (Greater Necromancy)
Cloak: LGS Cold Material Opposition
Gloves: Legendary Dashing Gloves (+8 Intelligence) Eventually to be replaced by 5th LGS item
Goggles: LGS Air Material Opposition
Helm: Legendary Pansophic Circlet (Globe of Imperial True Blood) No Reaper Bonus yet
Necklace: LGS Fire Material Opposition
Ring 1: Legendary Spinneret (+2 Evocation Focus)
Ring 2: Slavers Constitution/Resistance/Spell Focus/Quality Constitution
Trinket: Epic Litany of the Dead (+2 Spooky Wisdom, +40 False Life)
Armor: Leathers of the Celestial Sage (+250 Power, Good Luck +2)
Mainhand: LGS Radiance Fire Spellpower/ Insightful Charisma/Exceptional Fire Spellpower
Offhand: LGS Acid Acid Spellpower/Insightful Constitution/Exceptional Acid Spellpower
Quiver: Epic Quiver of Alacrity

Again, any questions on the build can be asked in comments and will be answered in comments. Thank you for looking at the build, and I hope everyone who plays it enjoys it as much as I do!

[Blastyswa]

VERY OUTDATED, NO LONGER RELEVANT TO THIS BUILD

Healing Tips and Must knows:
1. Renewal doesn't have an initial tick; it's important to cast it when you're expecting to take damage, not when you're at 200 HP. In addition, the cooldown is shorter than the duration, so spam casting it cuts off a little of your duration.
2. Healing Cocoon disappears basically if you take one extra hit while it's up in LH or LE content. With the massive healing it does on this build though, it's still highly effective even if it only gets to do the one initial tick.
3. Consecration has an initial tick, and without wellspring of power or comm pots or anything ticks over 1000 hp every 3 seconds on my build. It'll be your main heal, renewal is for high danger situations where you won't have a lot of reaction time (Tanking all 4 pt. 2 bosses in LE shroud for example) and cocoon is your general backup/emergency heal.
4. Past Life: Cleric is a last resort heal. I used to not use it, but my deaths (which are infrequent using this build) usually would occur because consecration was on cooldown, renewal was between ticks, and cocoon was on cooldown. The cleric heal should only be used in such a situation, because of it's small amount of charges, but it can be a real lifesaver when you need it.
5. CSW pots hit me for 150-200 health on this build. Sometimes, if I'm in a dangerous situation and want to prevent having to use a past life charge, I'll chug them in between other heals. Since pots aren't interruptable, this does pretty significant healing.
6. Heal Scrolls hit well over 1000 on this build. I barely ever use them, since they're interruptable and slower than cocoon/cleric past life, but they can be useful.

Tips on Blessing:
1. If you have 40+ charisma the chance to fail is so low that I have barely ever in hundreds, if not thousands of blesses, failed to bless a chest. I failed one chest the other day in an LE Shroud. It's easy to rebless, but I had 54 charisma at the time, so do note that you can fail.
2. Make sure and alert party members not only when initially joining the party, but also when initially entering the quest, and before every single chest. This tip is more for legendary raids though; doing this is ENx2 VoN 3 raids will likely get you yelled at. Most people are used to zerging the chests though, so, for example, in Legendary Shroud say you're a chest blesser when you join, when the party fills, when you enter, and when every phase is about to be completed. In addition, call outs on mic as well as party chat sometimes helps.
3. Bless can go through some obstacles, and has a little bit of a range. The range of bless is around 3-5 meters, which means you won't be blessing chests across the map, but you don't need to be inside the chest either. Some good places to use this are the underwater chests in pt. 3 Shroud (You can bless them through the barrier), the end chests in pt. 5 Shroud (Yes, you can bless every single end-chest before Arraetrikos' Lieutenants even spawn, so that zergy party chat ignorers don't open unblessed chests), and any quest where the chest appears but is locked during the endfight.
4. If the party doesn't want blessing, don't worry about it too much. In basically every Legendary raid I've ever done as a blesser, everyone at least tries to wait for the chest blesser (To the point that I've had groups wait 3-4 minutes for me to run back up mountain at the end of Tempest's Spine before opening endchests). However, you'll occasionally get those people that run up to each and every chest and open it before it can be blessed. If that happens, don't worry about it too much; the party leader will chew them out if they wanted blessed chests anyway. In addition, most people don't care about blessing outside raids or LE quests. Don't worry about it if you aren't able to bless all the end-chests in an EE WGU, that's just how chest blessing goes sometimes.

Additional General Tips on Build:
1. With the massive hamp, not only do your own heals hit a lot, but everyone else's heals hit you for a lot as well. This can actually be annoying, since some people enjoy seeing their own massive heals so much that I've had times where I have to get everyone to stop standing in the middle of LH HoX throwing heals on me at full health just because it's fun. You'll also get comments on the hamp fairly frequently, which is a nice little ego boost.
2. With the massive defense of the build, be a team player. This build is totally capable of contributing it's fair share of DPS anyway, but there's no point in having 200+ PRR and 5k hp if you're running in circles avoiding combat and letting party members get killed. I'll often sprint through every enemy I see, bursting and intimidating as much as possible, and then drop a consecration and start bursting while standing still. Your party will also appreciate everything being gathered in one place for easy AoE killing.
3. Arcane Pulse feels weak, until you start 5 stacking it on portals or bosses. It can typically hit 1-2k damage after being fully stacked, with no metamagics, and crit 2.5-5k damage. I've even had a few crits around the 10k mark during wellspring of power on vulnerable targets. My cycle on portals or bosses tends to be something like pulse-burst/blastx3-pulse and repeat, which maintains arcane pulse at 5 stacks without wasting any extra SP. It does have an initial tick though, so optionally just spamming it does yield better damage, at the cost of more SP.
4. Don't Ruin/Gruin mobs. It can feel fun to lead the kills by ruining everything you see, but it's highly SP intensive, even using litany/maximize spell, and that's SP better used on bosses. Hellball is a good mob killer, provided you're gathering a significant number of them together. Then it can be handy to throw in in addition to bursts to take out large groups quickly, in particular in situations like LShroud pt. 2 start with all the mobs gathered in the south, or ToEE zerging.
5. Don't be intimidated by all the raid gear and past life things listed in the build. Things like past life: Cleric and Completionist are helpful to this build, particularly for an incredibly aggressive playstyle, but the build can easily be used without them.

Post #18 contains additional notes on playing this build in Shiradi.
Post #22 is why play Human over Bladeforged.
Post #23 is an alternate gearing for people without t3 LGS.
Post #44 is tips for leveling heroics.
Post #52 is reasons for and against different pacts.

[Blastyswa]

LE Search and Rescue

http://plays.tv/video/579e48196c2987...-warlord-build

Showing how long it takes this build to take down LE raid trash mobs in LE Shroud
http://plays.tv/video/57b738a9c4d84c...king-down-mobs

LE Shroud Lieutenant Tanking; Note that this was done with very bad lag, so if the video looks glitchy it's not on the viewers side, it's because I had to spam heals 20 seconds before I got hit with how bad the lag was today for LE raiding.
http://plays.tv/video/5857246d640b88...-warlord-build

LN Shroud Solo

This isn't the first time this has been done, or the fastest, but it is the first run I know of done by someone without using undead form, chain missiles, and arcane supremacy. I have a video for this, but it's in 5 different clips, so I'm just going to link to my Playstv account instead so people can peruse at their leisure.

http://plays.tv/u/Blastyswa7

[slarden]

I was discussing this other day with someone that is TRing to a warlock and will be a chest blesser. He raised an excellent point which was that for all the things a character can do nothing is as useful as chest blessing and giving a chance for super rare random loot - the hardest thing to get in the game. Nothing you give up for that can come class to matching that value.

So true.

[Phil7]

Why don't you just right click on Arcane Pulse and turn on/off the metamagics for it.
Or even better as Slarden had suggested, have 2 versions of it in your hotbar. One with and one without metamagics.

The only strange thing I noticed in your build, is your goggles.
You could use an Evocation/+Insight Evocation or a LGS with +35% acid critical damage.
I mean +45 HP and +3 saves is not that extreme.

Nice build overall tho!

[Enoach]

As a warlock that uses Chest blessing I will have to agree, I don't remember failing a bless once my Charisma past 40. Recently ran with a rogue that for the most part needed two attempts to be successful and their Charisma was between 20 and 30. We joked that we needed to get him some charisma boosting items .

[Blastyswa]

Why don't you just right click on Arcane Pulse and turn on/off the metamagics for it.
Or even better as Slarden had suggested, have 2 versions of it in your hotbar. One with and one without metamagics.

The only strange thing I noticed in your build, is your goggles.
You could use an Evocation/+Insight Evocation or a LGS with +35% acid critical damage.
I mean +45 HP and +3 saves is not that extreme.

Nice build overall tho!

Honestly, at the moment it's mainly because I haven't bothered getting anything better. My gear has changed a bit though (Which I'll update in a bit) so I have the start of an ender's set in the build; I think in total I'm gaining 54% HP on all HP boosting effects, so the goggles are providing an actual bonus of 69 HP. I'm also planning to eventually switch out the goggles for LGS Material Opposition after I get the codex runes for more immortal hearts, so I wasn't too worried about what it is in the interum, although if I happen to pull an evocation/insight evocation I'll certainly have to consider equipping it.

At the moment it takes 1 click to get arcane pulse maximized (Turning on maximize) and I have to remember to turn it off at the end as well. Right clicking and manually turning the metamagic on and off would be two clicks, and while that's not a particularly big deal, it doesn't seem worth switching to. I do agree that 2 versions is probably a better option though, I'll probably switch to doing that next time i log on.

[adrian69]

On having shield spell, why not carry a +10 wand? The wands provides resistance to MM regardless of wand level in experience, the 10 minutes is just for convenience.

However, thanks for the useful tips on chest blessing and ideology. Interesting to see someone build for it. Got a friend who has life 3 computers monitors and runs two boxers, a trapper and a blesser, when he usually solos. Only saw one other blesser in since I came back.

[JOTMON]

Honestly, at the moment it's mainly because I haven't bothered getting anything better. My gear has changed a bit though (Which I'll update in a bit) so I have the start of an ender's set in the build; I think in total I'm gaining 54% HP on all HP boosting effects, so the goggles are providing an actual bonus of 69 HP. I'm also planning to eventually switch out the goggles for LGS Material Opposition after I get the codex runes for more immortal hearts, so I wasn't too worried about what it is in the interum, although if I happen to pull an evocation/insight evocation I'll certainly have to consider equipping it.

At the moment it takes 1 click to get arcane pulse maximized (Turning on maximize) and I have to remember to turn it off at the end as well. Right clicking and manually turning the metamagic on and off would be two clicks, and while that's not a particularly big deal, it doesn't seem worth switching to. I do agree that 2 versions is probably a better option though, I'll probably switch to doing that next time i log on.

as others have mentioned, setup two arcane pulses on your hot bar, one with metamagics, one without.. saves a whole lot of time.

[vampiregoat69]

Updated as of u31.

I initially named this build "Dazling's Generalist Warlock" when I first started playing with it. After a few ETR's though, I changed it's name in my notes to "The Warlord" because in my opinion, it's one of the best possible warlock builds out there at the moment. As a little disclaimer, this build will output a little less DPS than Slarden's DC Focused Warlock build, due to a higher emphasis on survivability, but based on a direct comparison between my stats and those of the Voodu Warlock build mine has higher DPS and survivability (Not trying to start a fight, just based on HP values and epic spells taken).

Things this build can do include:
Quickened Resurrection
Tanking LE Shroud Hellball
Tanking LE Shroud Ruin (Yea that's right, it can take that 10k hit)
Intimidate most things easily (I have a swap in intimidate item for Xyzzyzy or Sorjek)
Maintain aggro, even without intimidate (+75% aggro, and +100% aggro. If they're multiplicative, which I think they are, that's a 3.5x multiplier to generated threat with spells)
Low cost DPS, through use of bursts and Arcane Pulse
High cost spike DPS, through use of hellball/ruin/gruin
Bless Chests; this is very useful on LE raids in particular; I've seen people pull insanely powerful random items out of blessed chests.
Multiple Self-Heals; depending on past lives self-heals might be different, but will still have at least 3 extremely hard hitting heals.
Over 300 hamp
Over 600 positive spellpower
1000+ ticks on consecration
5k+ buffed hp including temp, great for freaking out parties.

And here's the build; please note that enhancements/epic destinies aren't covered until later, where i have screenshots for them.

Dazling

Human

20 Warlock

True Neutral

Great One One Pact

Str: 14
Dex: 8
Con: 16+Level Ups
Int: 16
Wis: 8
Cha: 16

Notes: Int, Con, and Cha are all important stats for this build. Each of them affects a different save, as well as additional things like HP/spellpoints/DC's, so I wouldn't recommend starting any of them at below 16. Strength is at 14 because with full buffs, and excluding a store pot or any trickery like owlbear cookies or twisting in extra strength, I can crack 75 strength on this build, allowing me to do both the int runes and the strength levers in LE Tempest Spine. If you don't care about that, leave strength at 8 and put Con or Cha to 18 to start.

Feats:
Human. Maximize Spell
1. Empower Spell
3. Quicken Spell
6. Completionist (Or, mental toughness, spell focus: evo, toughness, enlarge spell)
9. Insightful Reflexes
12. Force of Personality
15. Dragonmark of Searching
18. Past Life: Cleric (Or, mental/improved mental toughness, spell focus: evo, enlarge spell, toughness)
21. Wellspring of Power
24. Intensify Spell
26. Epic Eldritch Blast
27. Ruin
28. Hellball
29. Arcane Pulse
30. Greater Ruin
Legendary. Scion of Fire

Notes:
This is my recommended feat order for the build. Completionist isn't necessary for the build, although it's better than any of the listed alternatives if you do have it. Dragonmark of Searching is for chest-blessing, and Past Life: Cleric is an additional massive and quick emergency heal. If you plan to do less tanking on this build, it can be swapped out for one of the alternatives. I like Wellspring of Power for Ruin-Gruin on Crystal in LShroud, to pop right before boss fights, and just for general usage for mobs (It also gives +110 spellpoints). Intensify Spell is better than Epic Eldritch Blast because it applies not only to bursts, but also ruin's, hellball, and Past Life: Cleric. Ruin, Greater Ruin, and Hellball are all good SP intensive ways to spike damage (Hellball hits 500 an element, 1300 on crit, ruin/gruin do about 5000/10000, 13000/26000 on crit). while arcane pulse should be casted with absolutely no metamagics. This makes it cheap enough to quickly stack up on enemies; one thing I do however, which is not necessarily mandatory, is cast lesser maximize (free maximize) and turn on maximize in order to get an extra +150 spellpower for arcane pulse. It's important to make sure when doing this that you never forget and leave maximize on after lesser maximize wears off, otherwise arcane pulse costs about 4x normal. Scion of Fire is mandatory for most casters because of the large +25% spell crit bonus; this build doesn't have any caps on MRR, so the +10 PRR/MRR is effective as well, personally more so than Scion of Celestia's +150 HP.

Skills:
Intimidate, Spellcraft, Search, and Heal are the big ones. Other options with those maxed out are tumble, jump, perform, spot, balance, or UMD. I personally don't put many points in UMD, because even without them the build passively sits at around 50-60 UMD, more than enough to cast Greater Restoration/Heal Scrolls.

Spells:
1. Jump, Shield
2. Invisibility, Blur
3. Dark Discorporation, DDoor
4. Evard's, Globe of Invulnerability
5. Finger of Death, Tenser's
6. Wail, PWS

Notes:
Jump and Shield are pretty much self-explanatory, Jump is for jumping and shield is immunity to magic missiles and +4 AC (Which doesn't really matter much). I refrain from taking perma-shield in Enlightened Spirit because it would require sacrificing something else in the tree, like 1 point constitution or 50% threat generation, and it seems better to just cast the spell. Invisibility is also pretty obvious, and while the build has perma-blur at level 29, I use the casted blur in heroics and 20-28, as well as casting it on friendlies if they request it. DDoor is a staple in most arcanes spellbook, and Dark Discorporation I'll explain a little bit. The spell reduces incoming damage (except untyped/force) by 50% for it's duration, as well as the invisibility and 25% incorporeal. This is removed upon attacking, but not by your warlock aura. This means that, for example, while tanking hellball or DoJ endfight using dark discorporation will act as a stacking 50% damage reduction, with a 120 second cooldown (20 second duration, so 1/6 uptime). While the build can tank hellball or EE DoJ endfight with the proper gear even without this spell, it certainly makes it easier to absorb the first big hit, after which it'll probably be on cooldown for the rest of the fight. Evard's is good CC, even with charisma as a secondary stat, and I use Globe for tanking Xyzyzzy. Globe removes Displacement, as well as haste, and any other low level spells on you, but it also prevents bees. I don't use globe after our charmer gets to work, as it reduces dogs DPS to not have haste, but until then it's nice to keep from needing outside heals (Which the build does sometimes need on LE tanking). Finger is a flavor choice, DC is high enough on this build to hit a lot of targets, but don't try and cast it in legendary content or some EE's, the build isn't focused on DC. Tenser's I keep up a lot of the time, for +6 AC and +4 Constitution, in addition to +4 strength in LE Tempest Spine. Wail DC won't catch difficult enemies, but it still Neg's them, and PWS is great for setting a champ up for easy killing. The build also has PWK from pact, and I'd advise throwing it on an enemy with no spell resistance that looks like a threat as soon as you find one whenever it's off cooldown. In addition, if you wait to cast tenser's until after PWK, the cooldown is a lot more reasonable. Spell pen on this build isn't fantastic (I have 3x wizard/fvs past lives, think my spell pen is about 40) so PWK won't really work in LE Shroud.

I'm putting all the pictures of character sheet/enhancements/epic destiny onto a different site so that it doesn't clog up too much of this post, so here's the link: https://imgur.com/a/TR3Kj
A few notes on pictures:
1. All pictures were taken in the cargo hold of my airship, while my aura was ticking legendary affirmation. I figured this was fair enough, since in a vast majority of content nothing hits hard enough to drop those temporary hitpoints anyways. If anyone's adverse to those temporary hitpoints, subtract 1000 from the temporary HP in my character sheet screenshot and that's how much the build has without.
2. I used Defense Boost for the screenshots. I use defense boost back and forth between human version and Enlightened Spirit version, which gives it a 100% uptime used correctly, for a duration of a little 260 seconds. This is more than enough time for most boss fights, which is where the defense really matters anyway. If anyone has an issue with that, just subtract 2 constitution and 15 PRR/MRR/AC from the character sheet values and that's how much it is without.
3. Epic Destiny Twists that aren't shown are Rejuvenation Cocoon and Primal Scream.
4. Primal Scream wasn't used in the character sheet screenshot, just a rage pot, because of it being a public instance. I also didn't use Staunch.
5. I tried to avoid using any cheesy methods I wouldn't normally cast in the screenshot; I do have cha/con/int yugo pots going as well as tenser's, like I usually do in questing.

A few notes on Enhancements:
I decided at least 17 points were going into Human, 21 into Tainted Scholar, and 41 into Enlightened Spirit, for 3x hamp/core 4/core 6 respectively. This meant that I had 1 more AP to mess with, so I just tossed it into human's active tree for an extra action surge point. It could also be put in ES for +7 light spellpower, Souleater for +5 universal spellpower, or Tainted Scholar/Harper for some lame reason; honestly, that 80th point just doesn't matter on this build. The hamp from human is important to maximize hamp on this build, which is very high (320, 345 2/3 of the time with shining through for me) and dragonmarks are necessary. Tainted Scholar gives crit damage primarily, as well as some other goodies and utterdark blast, Enlightened Spirit contains a lot of good defense and bursts. I took the SLA displacement from Enlightened Spirit because I don't want to constantly swap out clickies for displacement, or drop Dark Discorporation/DDoor. It can be dropped though at the players discretion.

A few notes on Epic Destiny:
I've considered dropping 1 point from block energy and putting it into commanding presence for additional threat gen. However, I have no problem at the moment stealing aggro from any build, including furys and DC warlocks, while EE DoJ endfight absorption comes a little close, and even kills me if I'm taking too much melee damage while the fire rains down. The constitution bonuses can also optionally be dropped in favor of taking Lighting the Dark for an additional massive heal. However, it personally has too slow of an activation time, even with quicken (the ability goes off instantly, but the heal hits about a second later) making it undesirable for an emergency heal, which is what it'd be good for. In addition to that, it kind of massively overheals, healing 10's of thousands of damage, and once hitting me for over 100k during wellspring of power with a crit. That's fine and all, but it just feels a little excessive. +20% HP is basically non negotiable, don't mess with that, and Resurrection/Undying Vanguard are in the same boat. Resurrection is great because it's a 6 second cooldown and it's quickened, so throwing it out during combat is a lot safer than scrolling res, although you can switch between the two for rapidfire resurrections. Undying Vanguard is the only way to survive the Codex's Ruin at the end of LE Shroud that I know of, although I suppose an incredibly gimped all out constitution based core 6 stalwart defender might could manage it as long as the fighter doesn't get hit by anything else before or after the Ruin. In my experience though, although I could be wrong, if the Codex's initial Ruin is survived on LE it doesn't recast it. I've had that fight drag on for a minute or more before, and if I absorb the first Ruin no one else gets insta-killed so massively. With a quick Ruin-Gruin on the Codex at the start with the massive threat gen of this build, I can usually hold it's aggro long enough to absorb that ruin without other party members having to hold back on DPS.

A few notes on Twists:
Consecration+Sacred Ground makes for a massive overtime heal; while temp HP will probably never be broken in LH Shroud or anything easier, LE raids commonly see my build get down into it's actual HP. When that happens, having renewal+Consecration ticking on me makes deaths incredibly infrequent, even when I'm going crazy intimidating 5-6 LE mobs at once. Rejuvenation Cocoon is a great little heal, ticking about 1k non crit without wellspring. Empyrean Magic is a great DPS boost that is charged by aura and bursts, and Primal Scream is +5 constitution which is a major stat for this build, affecting shining through and brilliance as well as HP; In addition, my Primal Scream usually hits 3-5k damage, over 10k on a crit, and close to 20k on a helpless crit.

Current Gear:
Key: Item Name (Augments) [Extra Comments]

Belt: LGS Positive Material Opposition
Boots: Legendary Boots of the Devil Commander (+15 Intimidate) [For the PRR, other boots would work at cost of some defense]
Bracers: Mysterious Bracers (+20 Vitality, +2 Good Luck) [Use them, great defense. In addition, mysterious is better slotted here than cloak so you can switch to prismatic/absorption cloaks without losing insightful MRR or exceptional hamp]
Cloak: LGS Cold Material Opposition
Gloves: Legendary Dashing Gloves (+8 Intelligence)
Goggles: HGS Balance of Land and Sky +45 HP +3 Stacking Saves
Helm: Legendary Pansophic Circlet (Globe of Imperial True Blood)
Necklace: Legendary Noxious Embers (+8 Wisdom, +15 Spellcraft)
Ring 1: +14 Constitution/+7 Spell Saves Ring
Ring 2: +9 Charisma +10 Resistance [+16 Charisma +16 Resistance with a third effect would be optimal, main thing is put charisma here. If you use a Belt of Thoughtful Remembrance, can even not worry about the resistance]
Trinket: Epic Litany of the Dead (+2 Spooky Wisdom, +2 Spooky Intelligence) [Stat boost, and I use it as a clicky as well as the heroic one before I do ruin combos)
Armor: Breastplate of the Celestial Sage (+250 Power, Golem's Heart)
Mainhand: LGS Affirmation +150 Stacking Positive Spellpower/+50 Hamp/+70 Hamp [Can put +7 insightful cha as middle one instead, I opted for more defense over more offense)
Offhand: LGS Acid +150 Stacking Acid Spellpower/+7 Constitution/+37 Exceptional Acid Spellpower [I don't have third tier yet]
Quiver: Epic Dynamistic Quiver [Not needed at all, in any way shape or form. But there isn't any drawbacks to it, so whatever]

Gear covers basically all offense and defense bases, any change recommendations are welcome though if someone has a better idea on a few things. I don't have evocation focus anywhere, but that'll change with the next update.

I'm looking ahead to the next update's gear, and am planning to put several pieces of it into the build. I'll update this build to reflect that once u32 hits, but the basic gist is that I'll have a 3 piece set of the new gear, keep Epic Litany, the armor, and the weapons, still be going for Ender's Set, and still have the Mysterious Bracers and the hat.

have to say at least at low levels bursting is not very good compared to the blaster warlock I was in previous life, sure hope it gets better.

[Blastyswa]

On having shield spell, why not carry a +10 wand? The wands provides resistance to MM regardless of wand level in experience, the 10 minutes is just for convenience.

However, thanks for the useful tips on chest blessing and ideology. Interesting to see someone build for it. Got a friend who has life 3 computers monitors and runs two boxers, a trapper and a blesser, when he usually solos. Only saw one other blesser in since I came back.

To be honest, one of the main reason's is because I don't see any great alternatives as far as level 1 spells. I could swap out shield for Resist Energy, but I have a Draconic Soul Gem, or Hypnotism for -3 Will Saves, but I don't really use many will based spells aside from pact damage, and I don't really want to spam hypnotism on every pack of mobs I see, or False Life, which would be +20 temporary hitpoints. And casting the spell unquickened at the start of every quest gives me a 20 minute duration, while only costing 8 SP (The wand would be 0 SP, but 8 SP for double duration is ok with me, since it prevents me from having to rebuff in phase 1 shroud).

Yep, with the random loot changes blessing has actually become somewhat useful. I've had quite a few items drop like +16 Constitution/+50 False Life/+6 Insightful Constitution belts and the like that I've been putting on alts, particularly when running a +2 Loot Gem in LE raids.

[Blastyswa]

as others have mentioned, setup two arcane pulses on your hot bar, one with metamagics, one without.. saves a whole lot of time.

I've actually done this since every has mentioned it, and you're right, it's certainly rather easy. I've had to do the same thing for hellball (Which I've been running primarily with no metamagics) so my shortcut bars are getting a little cluttered, but it's certainly easier to just switch to tapping another button instead of toggling the metamagic on and off.

[Blastyswa]

have to say at least at low levels bursting is not very good compared to the blaster warlock I was in previous life, sure hope it gets better.

From about level 1-4 I primarily leveled by hitting stuff with a couple of random swords I found and using hires. Since I take maximize+empower+quicken all as early as possible (You have all 3 at level 3 on this build, which is before you even get burst) the moment I get to burst I'm one shot killing things until about level 10. Then it's just a short bit more to get to level 12, where I begin two burst killing things with having spirit blast as well, and healing stops being a thing with Shining Through. I can typically carry through to level 20 just fine with properly gearing along the way; at 20 I play in Shiradi Champion, because the Sentinel DPS of this build works based on Hellball/Ruin's, which you don't get until level 27-30. I can usually do EEBB quests like House Deneith chain, House Phiarlan, and CiTW flagging just fine at level 20-24, and once I hit 26 where I get my LGS I can typically do EE Eveningstar/GH Sagas to cap myself out at level 30.

The main thing with bursting is you have to be highly aggressive; if you run up to each individual mob, pull him away from his buddies, and then burst just him, you're not playing the burster right. Typically I'll sprint through a dungeon until I get red DA, drop a consecration, and then start bursting and dropping hellballs until everything is dead. Sentinel helps with this playstyle approach, because in harder LE quest/raids doing this same tactic with less heals and less defense can be fatal.

[JOTMON]

I've actually done this since every has mentioned it, and you're right, it's certainly rather easy. I've had to do the same thing for hellball (Which I've been running primarily with no metamagics) so my shortcut bars are getting a little cluttered, but it's certainly easier to just switch to tapping another button instead of toggling the metamagic on and off.

before you know it you will be loaded up on hotbars and looking at more screens...

[Ellihor]

I always LOL when people post builds in the forums, give screenshot and all, but don't give breakdown of main stat. That said, keep on the blessing, apreciated

[Blastyswa]

I always LOL when people post builds in the forums, give screenshot and all, but don't give breakdown of main stat. That said, keep on the blessing, apreciated

I've actually modified the build quite a bit, and will update the screenshot soon; One huge difference is I went a little less all out constitution based, so my constitution has dropped to 70-80 range (Depending on Scream, Tenser's, and Yugo). I'll make sure and include a breakdown on my stats with the updated screenshot when i get around to it, just didn't want the already large first post to get even bigger.

[adrian69]

To be honest, one of the main reason's is because I don't see any great alternatives as far as level 1 spells. I could swap out shield for Resist Energy, but I have a Draconic Soul Gem, or Hypnotism for -3 Will Saves, but I don't really use many will based spells aside from pact damage, and I don't really want to spam hypnotism on every pack of mobs I see, or False Life, which would be +20 temporary hitpoints. And casting the spell unquickened at the start of every quest gives me a 20 minute duration, while only costing 8 SP (The wand would be 0 SP, but 8 SP for double duration is ok with me, since it prevents me from having to rebuff in phase 1 shroud).

Yep, with the random loot changes blessing has actually become somewhat useful. I've had quite a few items drop like +16 Constitution/+50 False Life/+6 Insightful Constitution belts and the like that I've been putting on alts, particularly when running a +2 Loot Gem in LE raids.

Fair enough, it is personal preference. What about 25 minutes of 25% run speed, or is it an enhancement bonus now? I know ranger/druid version stacks, but haven't played with arcane version other than mid level w/ wands.

Would love to get a +16 str/16 Con/6 insight bracers. I know they exist, though rare.

[Blastyswa]

This is kind of acting as a bump, as well as saying some things about the Shiradi version of this build, which I just added.
I included an alternate setup that uses Shiradi and focuses a little more on DPS at the loss of significant survivability, as well as alternate enhancement point spending to buff summons a little. Both the Shiradi version and the Sentinel version require very little swapping around, since the gear and enhancements used for both are the same. The only thing that really changes are the twists, and of course the actual destiny.

The Shiradi version can still easily have over 2000 HP (My Opposition set currently gives +16% HP, when maxed it should give +36%) and 150+ PRR (My Divine EPL's aren't maxed on this character) as well as 300+ hamp/600+ positive spellpower. However, I still would advise switching to the Sentinel version if you know you're needed as a tank, because the only healing the Shiradi version has is Rejuvenation Cocoon, (Which is nice, but can't be spammed crazily while getting hit a bunch) Healing Spring, (Which has critically ticked for 10k+ on me, but it's once per 20 seconds, and shouldn't be counted on) Past Life: Cleric (Full health, but 5 Charges), and heal scrolls for 1000+/CSW pots for 100-200 healing. The build also retains 1000 temporary HP every minute from Legendary Affirmation and Shining Through, as well as Triple Positive LGS ticking 150 HP per 10 seconds. Audience with the Queen also provides some nice defensive bonuses for boss fights; 75% elemental absorption for EE DoJ endfight makes surviving a lot less touch and go, and +300 HP/+100 PRR/+10 Saves is always helpful. However, despite all this, this build is not a tank in this destiny. The build's DPS rises significantly, especially on trash mobs, and to the point where I'm considering dropping the Ruin line and picking up Epic Eldritch Damage and another feat.
But even just on EE Temple of the Deathwyrm tanking the end dragon, I've found that the build sometimes needs outside heals. Typically, this is a result of having Healing Spring tick, and then having my HP start dropping. Once it gets low, tapping rejuvenation cocoon brings it back up, but then it starts going down again. Healing scrolls aren't an option while being attacked usually, even with 80-100 concentration, and Past Life: Cleric isn't really a spammable ability, so it's basically chug pots until healing spring procs again. Using this method I've gotten a little closer to being killed than I like, although I haven't actually died outside of LE raids on the Shiradi version of the build yet. Additionally, on phase 2 of LE Shroud (and to some degree, LH) you can't tank lieutenants with near the same effectiveness as the Sentinel version. Keep in mind that Sentinel is constantly healing every second or two thanks to Consecration+Renewal being up, as well as having increased PRR/Hamp/HP. In the Shiradi version of this build, one hit knocks through Affirmation, one hit knocks through Shining Through, two hits bring me down to almost dead, rejuvenation cocoon brings me back to full health, and then after repeating that process a few times substituting Past Life: Cleric for Rejuvenation Cocoon, I die. In addition, after getting rezzed, I can't even tank that effectively, because I'm then out of my emergency past life heals. So when joining groups, especially for things like FoTP/FoT, make sure and ask if a tank is needed; if it is, coming in Sentinel is preferable.

[JOTMON]

This is kind of acting as a bump, as well as saying some things about the Shiradi version of this build, which I just added.
I included an alternate setup that uses Shiradi and focuses a little more on DPS at the loss of significant survivability, as well as alternate enhancement point spending to buff summons a little. Both the Shiradi version and the Sentinel version require very little swapping around, since the gear and enhancements used for both are the same. The only thing that really changes are the twists, and of course the actual destiny.

The Shiradi version can still easily have over 2000 HP (My Opposition set currently gives +16% HP, when maxed it should give +36%) and 150+ PRR (My Divine EPL's aren't maxed on this character) as well as 300+ hamp/600+ positive spellpower. However, I still would advise switching to the Sentinel version if you know you're needed as a tank, because the only healing the Shiradi version has is Rejuvenation Cocoon, (Which is nice, but can't be spammed crazily while getting hit a bunch) Healing Spring, (Which has critically ticked for 10k+ on me, but it's once per 20 seconds, and shouldn't be counted on) Past Life: Cleric (Full health, but 5 Charges), and heal scrolls for 1000+/CSW pots for 100-200 healing. The build also retains 1000 temporary HP every minute from Legendary Affirmation and Shining Through, as well as Triple Positive LGS ticking 150 HP per 10 seconds. Audience with the Queen also provides some nice defensive bonuses for boss fights; 75% elemental absorption for EE DoJ endfight makes surviving a lot less touch and go, and +300 HP/+100 PRR/+10 Saves is always helpful. However, despite all this, this build is not a tank in this destiny. The build's DPS rises significantly, especially on trash mobs, and to the point where I'm considering dropping the Ruin line and picking up Epic Eldritch Damage and another feat.
But even just on EE Temple of the Deathwyrm tanking the end dragon, I've found that the build sometimes needs outside heals. Typically, this is a result of having Healing Spring tick, and then having my HP start dropping. Once it gets low, tapping rejuvenation cocoon brings it back up, but then it starts going down again. Healing scrolls aren't an option while being attacked usually, even with 80-100 concentration, and Past Life: Cleric isn't really a spammable ability, so it's basically chug pots until healing spring procs again. Using this method I've gotten a little closer to being killed than I like, although I haven't actually died outside of LE raids on the Shiradi version of the build yet. Additionally, on phase 2 of LE Shroud (and to some degree, LH) you can't tank lieutenants with near the same effectiveness as the Sentinel version. Keep in mind that Sentinel is constantly healing every second or two thanks to Consecration+Renewal being up, as well as having increased PRR/Hamp/HP. In the Shiradi version of this build, one hit knocks through Affirmation, one hit knocks through Shining Through, two hits bring me down to almost dead, rejuvenation cocoon brings me back to full health, and then after repeating that process a few times substituting Past Life: Cleric for Rejuvenation Cocoon, I die. In addition, after getting rezzed, I can't even tank that effectively, because I'm then out of my emergency past life heals. So when joining groups, especially for things like FoTP/FoT, make sure and ask if a tank is needed; if it is, coming in Sentinel is preferable.

Embrace the master race.. Bladeforged..

[Enoach]

Embrace the master race.. Bladeforged..

Wait!?!? I thought the master race was halflings. You mean Bladeforge are not Dalek battle armor for halflings? I now have to re-evaluate my whole belief system