deep gnome warlock multiclass idea/help

[skaught78]

So I'm nearing the end of my current druid build, and need one more deep gnome life. I will be +1ing the wizard level out and have a few questions and ideas.

I wanna go melee warlock, but wondering if it will work out ok with deep gnome.

Thinking of 2 arti for rune arm use, single weapon fighting and maybe splashing some FVS for self healing and/or extra light damage.

to start, I'm thinking:

16 STR
12 DEX
16 CON
10 INT
10 WIS
12 CHA

thoughts? Criticisms? Ideas?

Ty in advance

[skaught78]

bampidy

[unbongwah]

Honestly, I'm not sure what you're trying to accomplish here, so maybe post a build to flesh out your idea?

[DrWily]

Well, from someone who's done something very similar I can try to help. My current build is a H-Orc 16/3/1 Warlock/Arti/Wizard. Having that 1 Wizard level gives an extra feat and allows use of Eldritch Strike cleave (I'm only doing around an extra 200 force damage with it, but it's more or less free damage). Most of my other points went into Enlightened and Souleater trees (T4 and T5 respectively), and then the rest into the racial tree.

If you swap out wizard for favored soul the Scourge enhancement works great for Fiend pact and is basically +30 to your spellpower as long as you keep yourself near enemies, which you should be doing as a melee lock anyway.

Since you're running Deep Gnome you can jump right in at lv15. That gives you two options for starting Runearms: Arms of the Archons H or Tira's Splendor. Past that Toven's Hammer, Knives Eternal, and Machination of Madness are your best options for late-game runearms.

[cru121]

deep gnome warlock 20, int based harper with light picks 18-20x4
(pure warlock has the benefit that with a few feat swaps, you can ditch the melee aspect and retrain into a regular caster warlock)

Deep Gnome 17 AP: Gnomish Weapon Training I-IV, Color Spray, filler
Enlightened Spirit 41 AP: for the usual goodies
Harper 12 AP: Int to hit/damage
10 AP left

Heroic feats: 3x SWF, IC:Pierce, Max, Emp, Quicken (or Quick Draw, I have not tried it but according to description it should reduce the delay between spellcasting and weapon swings)

In Epic, Divine Crusader should work nicely, for 17-20 x 4, another Cleave and easy AoE healing.

[skaught78]

Completely forgot I started this thread!

Went ahead with a Arti 2 Warlock 18 build. (well technically I am a 2 arti 13 lock now).

So far have speced for single weapon fighting, obviously for the runearm use. Ran GH sides and Assault on summerfield with me guildies last night. Was pretty fun. Not sure as of now whether is will be better to go the 2 arti/runarm way or just pure lock/orb build, but I don't think I will be gimped with the former.

Although I am a little confused about the eldritch aura. I went with the great old one pact. So does that mean my aura does acid/light damage? Or light only? What about the bursts? Do they do only light? Or light and acid?

[unbongwah]

Although I am a little confused about the eldritch aura. I went with the great old one pact. So does that mean my aura does acid/light damage? Or light only? What about the bursts? Do they do only light? Or light and acid?

Okay, so normally there's two components to your Eldritch Blast damage: the base damage which is scaled by Force / Impulse Spellpower (unless you use the Utterdark Blast enhancement, in which case it becomes based on Evil / Radiance Spellpower); and the Pact dmg, which in your case is acid so it's boosted by Corrosion Spellpower. That doesn't change once you start using auras; it just passively procs every X seconds, rather than having to manually fire it like the other EB forms.

But then you add Light damage to your aura from various sources, namely Spiritual Retribution and Celestial Spirit. And presumably you take Eldritch Burst and Spirit Blast, which do the regular amount of damage of your aura plus an extra 3d6/10d6 Light dmg when you use them. All this extra light dmg is scaled by Radiance Spellpower. This is why a lot of ES builds take Utterdark Blast, BTW; so rather than slotting Impulse, Radiance, and Corrosion spellpower / Lore gear, you can skip Impulse and just focus on the latter two.

[skaught78]

So taking utterdark blast from the tainted scholar tree affects the aura in ES tree?

[unbongwah]

So taking utterdark blast from the tainted scholar tree affects the aura in ES tree?

Yup! Remember that your ES aura is just a blast shape stance, so it changes how the damage procs (AoE DoT rather than ranged attack), but not what the damage proc is. Utterdark changes the damage type - and therefore the Spellpower - on the base EB damage from Force to Evil (which is based on alignment spellpower which falls under Radiance); that affects your Eldritch Blast regardless of which blast shape you use.