Zehnpai's Acid Warlock - [First life friendly] [Heroic leveling] [VIP/Premium]

[Requiro]

Nice build. Look great, and easy to understand everything. Tips are very helpful for new players.

Just one question: You put Quicken Spell on level 1 feat slot, and then you use it to cast False life spell. On level 1 you get on first lifer only 50 SP (OFC after lots of TR and Reaper you have much more). It is worth it?
I mean, why not Maximize meta, take Consume, and kill any big threat from range fast and easy (champs, bosses). You still can cast False life, just a little slower but lower on SP cost.

Did you try Human with Maximize and Empower from level 1? Then route: Consume (1lvl), Feigned Healt (1 or 3lvl), Stricken (2lvl), Cone(3 lvl), Utterdark Blast (4 lvl).
I think this is my favorite low level Warlock - you can kill everything solo without any Hire.

[zehnvhex]

Just one question: You put Quicken Spell on level 1 feat slot, and then you use it to cast False life spell. On level 1 you get on first lifer only 50 SP (OFC after lots of TR and Reaper you have much more). It is worth it?
I mean, why not Maximize meta, take Consume, and kill any big threat from range fast and easy (champs, bosses). You still can cast False life, just a little slower but lower on SP cost.

Warlock should be starting with 160 (+/- 10 depending on race)

80 (magical training) + 50 (warlock) + 30 ((Caster level + 9) * (modifer))

That's more than enough to last through most low level dungeons. It's just a buffer really and it's not like you have anything else to spend your SP on.

As for max/emp:

The short answer is it's up to you. With the way I play, I don't even have consume hotkeyed until like level 8+. From 2 to 4 I chain non-stop and then from 5~20 it's all about cone. Usually I gather up a bunch of mobs and then web/evards and cone them down. It isn't until 12+ until you really start getting high HP mobs that come solo that warrant even using consume.

If you find yourself killing things one thing at a time prioer to level 12, stop that you're a warlock. If you insist on doing it though, then max/emp aren't a bad investment for boosting consume.

[Imercius_Argonesson]

Hi I love the guide has been very useful. I have a 4th life and recently purchased lock on sale so using it for some reaper farming. I found cone to be the most useful attack and became excellent at dancing around mobs.

Now I'm LVL 12 I did the switch to es tree. I found that even with radiant and lore, acid and lore items max/emp my bursts would tackle normal mobs relatively ok but reapers and champs I was stuck. So I made a compromise and took all of ES tree to get light DMG and shining through then the rest to get cone. I have massive temp HP buffer now. I sit at about 600 in reaper. And run around coming stuff. Maybe it is just my playstyle.
But I found I would get stuck in a group of mobs and bursts burst then so was stuck. Cone keeps me dancing around and I'm happy. I don't have the extra pact dice but that is made up for by extra light DMG. So I don't feel like I lose on DPE. I managed to solo wiz king R1 at LVL which I have never achieved on my palemaster. And it is so quick as I never need to shrine.

Do U think it is a playstyle thing or perhaps I miss something from the bursts? I have 150spell DMG and 15-20% crit chance in the relevant types. 40ac, 40prr50mrr in medium armor

[zehnvhex]

Do U think it is a playstyle thing or perhaps I miss something from the bursts? I have 150spell DMG and 15-20% crit chance in the relevant types. 40ac, 40prr50mrr in medium armor

ES is something you do once mostly just to experience the novelty of it. If you're happy with cone, stick with cone. It's more DPS. ES is just kinda fun to do because up through R2 you're practically immortal, even on a relatively new character. However, as you're experiencing, the lower DPS makes it kinda ho-hum to play with once you start fighting things that live through blasts.

For ES what you mostly want to do is never really stop moving. Unless it's the last mob in the zone or a fear reaper you want to just keep moving. Champ mobs will eventually die as you continue to plow through normal mobs.

It isn't like a sorcerer where you round up 50 mobs, cast web/firewall/acid rain and then AFK until they're all dead. For a warlock you just keep running and blasting anything that gets close.

[Christop]

Been running this build and voodoo's druid caster and having fun with both. That said I could not figure out why my Rock boots did not seem to be helping my eldritch blast. Weird but everything seemed to be going so smooth that it was level 9 before I really started to go through the feats and enchantments part of the character sheet.

Turns out you have to turn on your pact damage with a separate toggle .

I feel so newbish and dumb.

[HungarianRhapsody]

You said that the level 5 spells are pretty much garbage, but two of my favorite spells are at that level.

Undeath to Death - instakill for Undead. Will save or dead and it's AoE. That's a whole bunch of dead critters if you are in an undead heavy quest. Limited application, but you can't finger or charm undead, so it's a nice alternative to a lot of your other instakill.

Circle of Death - who doesn't want more AoE instakills? It has two saves, but if you occasionally throw this out, it can at least kill a few critters and it hits everyone in the circle, so that can be a LOT more kills than a single Finger of Death even with two spell saves.

[Frezar14]

First off, AWESOME write up, thank you.

I've been playing years as a sorc and have a new excitement for the game playing a warlock. I think it will help me getting through some racial lives anyway. I don't consider myself an awesome player by any means but like to think I'm ok. Here are my thoughts and questions after level 13:

- I didn't see this post until level 3 and started as Fiend. While its been just fine I do find my self wondering what GOO is like and probably will go that route next life.

- I sure do NOT miss mana management and having to shrine all the time as a sorc.

- I enjoyed dipping my toe in using auras but found it just too difficult for single targets.

- I now feel I have nice variety of AOE and single targets using TS (13) and SE (35).

- Being a sorc I always went DPS and evoc. I'm trying to find out which spell focus to emphasize. I do use web and just got FoD. So some days I feel like conjure other days necro. Any thoughts here?

- I have quicken and rarely use it. I'm wondering if its needed and if not what other feat? (I currently have Max, Empower, wiz past life, mental toughness, imp mental toughness).

- I used exp retreat then swapped to jump as first level spell and gave me more points for skills, concentration mostly. Being new to class I had already put points into jump. It is useful to jump around. Also learned that from being a sorc.

- I still run into issues but for the most part have completed on reaper which is great and the xp really does add up. I was able to skip a lot of quests I usually don't like to run.

- It's been difficult to find and squeeze in gear for comb/fire, impulse/kin, and light/radiance. Is there an order of importance here?

- Any quest with devils, fire elementals, or iron golems has been a pain. Constantly looking for smiting weapons now and hence the switch to GOO next life.

Excited about the unknown in the upcoming levels.

Again, thanks for the write up and any tips from warlock players would be appreciated. Especially the gear question and which spell school to focus on.

[Zretch]

First off, AWESOME write up, thank you.

I've been playing years as a sorc and have a new excitement for the game playing a warlock. I think it will help me getting through some racial lives anyway. I don't consider myself an awesome player by any means but like to think I'm ok. Here are my thoughts and questions after level 13:

:
:

Excited about the unknown in the upcoming levels.

Again, thanks for the write up and any tips from warlock players would be appreciated. Especially the gear question and which spell school to focus on.

GOO tends to have fewer mobs immune to your pact, and it starts a bit faster with the insta-kills by giving you PK at level 9. You still run up against mobs that you'll heal (clay golems rather than iron golems), and you still run up against mobs immune to acid (wisps, some spiders, abashai, etc), but some things go down faster (devils, elementals, etc). You'll probably like Taming the Flames more and Acid Wit less.

Fiend finishes stronger, IMO, with Hurl through Hell (15) and Howl of Terror (18 or 19?). I tend to level up as GOO, but have done both leveling up.

I'd recommend focusing on Necromancy. Your necro spells hit a Fort save while your enchanment spells hit Will. Your conjuration spell hits a stat (strength), so it's one of the easier spells to land.

I always take quicken, mainly for my CCs. If I'm being hit and need to get a CC out, I don't want it interrupted.

If you're not going into ES, I'd probably prioritize pact (comb/fire) and base (impulse/kin). Don't run Utterdark unless you hit a mob that resists/immune to force and/or is vulnerable to chaos. ES locks run Utterdark more often because of the light spellpower boosts in the ES tree. Impulse/kin also helps with Arcane Pulse and Ruin/G-Ruin.

Quests with devils will still be a pain, just not as big a one. Clay golems will be your new nemesis (Wiz-King and Slavers 3). Being able to hit fire elementals harder is an improvement, they're in a lot of quests.

[zehnvhex]

but two of my favorite spells are at that level.

I tend to avoid DC casting on my Warlock because I mostly play a Warlock to stomp r1 heroic quests. If I want to do anything more difficult, then I'd rather play a class more suited for it like Sorc or Ranger or something.

They're good spells, sure, but I find them to be kind of a waste for a Warlock. If I'm doing r1 content then wave + EBT is usually enough to clear a room regardless of saves. If I'm doing content where that's not enough to kill everything in site, then I probably would rather be on my Sorc.

That being said, if you enjoy it, all the more power to you my friend.

[AMADHA]

I've been playing for a while and I've seen 4 being used once and I was impressed. Hint 3 is AWESOME! Plus, it now explains why I might want skill points in Jump. Since I play mostly solo I've never seen 3 being used... but your explanation of how and why, plus the cool gif showing it being used, was absolutely great! Suddenly I discover that the keyboard is your friend and thanks to you I have now begun to embrace the keyboard rather than the mouse. (Not sure if this is moving to the dark side or not, but what the hey.) For a newbie I would say, spend the points to buy warlock and then read and follow this thread. Anyone doing so will enjoy their first run to 20 more and will come out of it a much better player. Great job.

[erethizon]

Quicken I like for consume, stricken, wave, etc...from the SE tree. Plus EBT/Web/False Life/Mass charm.

Early on it may not feel like you get much use out of it, but post 10 and definitely post 16 you're going to feel the burn from not having it. I like getting it early for faster cast false life.

I mean obviously if it works for you then by all means, but it's not something I would ever suggest.

Does quicken increase DPS? I've almost never taken quicken in any of my 23 lives because it seems like an addiction. You get used to faster casting speed and then if feels slow without it. By never taking it I don't get used to it and everything is fine. That said, if your Consume, Stricken, Wave, etc. are quickened, does that mean you are able to get back to blasting faster since they take less time to cast (thus increasing the overall damage you do over time)?

[erethizon]

Because of this thread I finally decided to buy Ravenloft last week (I had been waiting for it to go on sale in the DDO store) and farmed the level 10 items you recommend. When my new life got to level 10 the new gear improved a lot of my stats with only 3 drawbacks. I lost a little AC because of a lack of a protection item (which is something I can live with), all of my saves went down due to a lack of a resistance item (a bigger problem, but I guess it is okay), and my Force crit dropped down to 5% (this is the one that bothers me).

Do you have an suggestions to deal with these problems (particularly the last one)? Is there other gear that can go in the unused slots that you would recommend?

Finally, one last question (and the real reason I wrote this comment), the level 10 Ravenloft scepter is good for level 10, but if we are really using this gear all the way to level 28/29 when we get the epic Ravenloft equivalent, that is a long time to have no force crit and a relatively weak potency. The scepter is great for level 10, but terrible for 28 (since the epic scepter is level 29). Is there a weapon you suggest in the meantime? Something that will increase our overall power until we get the level 29 scepter? Ideally there is a low level epic item we can use that can accept sentience so we can take advantage of sentient weapons before level 29.

[Bjond]

Does quicken increase DPS?

Yes, but I don't have exact numbers, just observation. It looks like it shaves off about 1s per SLA. It's much more noticeable when you're using auto-attack versus button-hold, too. If you're buttoning your blasts and laying off your button to spell, you might not notice a difference. Oh, and there's another issue with auto-attack: the UI seems to have a preference for auto over activated. If you use auto attack, the UI will insist on finishing a cycle. It won't let you interrupt an auto-cycle. IMHO, that's a bug (because you can interrupt a cycle when buttoning) and I've not found a work-around.

level 10 Ravenloft scepter is good for level 10, but if we are really using this gear all the way to level 28/29

It's too bad LGS doesn't offer Radiance power or it would be the go-to for warlock. For a one-item alternative to Barovian, you can try Pansophic. It's pretty close in power and permits you to ditch the scepter for something else. There's Lantern Ring @ L26, but it's just regular Radiance.

BTW, I'd suggest using Utterdark Blast. It will put you on Light+Pact for spellpower instead of Light+Force+Pact. Stricken and Consume are driven by Light (light boosts alignment, too). Sun-Elf Iconic PL stance also grants Light spell-power. AFAIK, once you're on Utterdark, the only thing that uses force is Evard's.

So, why go ES? [and why stay there]

Not really going to answer the why, but I will point out a "how" that you brushed past. As you use ES, you'll notice how difficult it is to do single-target DPS -- even mixing stricken and consume with bursts isn't enough -- but melee is. However, it's nearly impossible to cast spells during melee and it's not due to interruption. The UI just plain won't let you wedge a spell in. Buttons are ignored unless you have Quick-Draw or halt melee. And, you need that melee to take up the single-target slack beyond 15~16. SWF offer a huge boost to single-target DPS as a ES-lock, too, but that's a completely different build; replacing multiple feats for a few levels doesn't make sense to me.

OTH, Blurfingered Gloves grant Quick-Draw. They're ridiculously easy to farm from Into-the-Mists. They open up melee to any ES-lock. And, they're just nice to have after you're done toying with ES, too.

[Mairsil]

The enhancement pictures disappeared.

[zehnvhex]

Apologies. I nuked my imgur account and forgot that some of the images were still used here. When I get a chance (hopefully today or tonight) I'll re-make them.

[banjo174]

So, this is where all the bad Warlocks are coming to get advice. No wonder they are so bad.

[weekase]

Unsure of what your definition of "hopefully today or tonight" is exactly, lol?

[Obliord]

Lost Enhancement Screenshots

Level 12 Enhancements

Level 16 Enhancements

I found them here http://archive.md/4qrlf but wasn't sure how long they would stay there, so I uploaded them to imgur just in case.

I've never used imgur before so if they don't show for some reason, let me know.

[erethizon]

So, this is where all the bad Warlocks are coming to get advice. No wonder they are so bad.

Feel free to offer better advice. They come here because there are no better resources.

[Hobgoblin]

So, this is where all the bad Warlocks are coming to get advice. No wonder they are so bad.

dude. who ****** in your cheerios.


now to be fair i dont like certain things in the build, but thats because they dont fit with my playstyle.

but dont just make blanket statements and walk away - back up your bs and a discussion can occur.