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

[zehnvhex]

Added a spell list. If anybody has any level 5 spells they feel really strongly about please let me know but I've never been able to justify casting any of them under any circumstances. I guess I could see how protection from elements might sound nice but it's 120 pre-mitigation and with all the temp HP warlocks get it's just a horrible use of spell points.

I've taken Finger of Death occasionally but anything I can FoD I can usually charm for half the cost and twice the fun.

I usually grab undead to death but the number of undead you encounter between 14~20 is surprisingly little. Globe of Invuln is sometimes fun for messing with melee but unless you're going for the jerkmancer build (grease, ice storm, globe) I really don't take it much.

[Sunnie]

Added a spell list. If anybody has any level 5 spells they feel really strongly about please let me know

Greater Teleport is useful in some situations and can make parties like you more. It's most useful for getting a party of more than 6 people to the raid Twilight Forge in the restless isles, but it's also great for getting people to Meridia instead of the Twelve. It's also quite welcome in Gianthold and Menechtarun, and I've occasionally seen it used to help someone get to the Portable Hole.

Other than that... Mass Hold Person maybe?

[Yutaku]

For 5th level spells I usually grab
mass protection from elements, to cast at all of the group at start abnd forget it, treating it like extra temporary hp of sorts.
and finger of death, only good against mobs with really bad Fort saves, since this is not a DC caster build. But it works when I want to kill a shadarkai assassin at range, or a fey.

[Zretch]

Added a spell list. If anybody has any level 5 spells they feel really strongly about please let me know but I've never been able to justify casting any of them under any circumstances. I guess I could see how protection from elements might sound nice but it's 120 pre-mitigation and with all the temp HP warlocks get it's just a horrible use of spell points.

I've taken Finger of Death occasionally but anything I can FoD I can usually charm for half the cost and twice the fun.

I usually grab undead to death but the number of undead you encounter between 14~20 is surprisingly little. Globe of Invuln is sometimes fun for messing with melee but unless you're going for the jerkmancer build (grease, ice storm, globe) I really don't take it much.

Tentacles goes against a strength save, and Waves of Exhaustion (5th level spell) lowers strength as well as providing a moderate slow even if Tentacles is on cooldown. It's also a cone, so you can throw it out with the Eldritch Wave and cone blasts. I always take Finger of Death primarily because it wrecks beholders, which is a handy QoL thing when you run the VoN chain, RitD, etc.

Another thing to consider for a 4th level spell is Flesh to Stone rather than Teleport. Teleport is a spell that is very easy and convenient to cast from a scroll. Flesh to Stone sticks on low-fort mobs pretty consistently, holds for a long time before they get to make their second save attempt, and your blasts/bursts aren't effected at all (that I can tell) by the DR.

[zehnvhex]

Greater Teleport is useful in some situations

Other than that... Mass Hold Person maybe?

That's the problem I have with most level 5's. Like, greater TP saves me maybe a grand total of a minute or two over the course of a 20~30 hours/TR. I've been trying to give each one a fair shake but I've yet to find that I enjoy casting. Even mass hold person is really weak simply because by the time you reach content that has tons of humans you have access to mass charm and that's infinitely more entertaining.

I always take Finger of Death primarily because it wrecks beholders, which is a handy QoL thing when you run the VoN chain, RitD, etc.

Another thing to consider for a 4th level spell is Flesh to Stone

I'm usually done with VoN by the time I have a chance to grab FoD. I've tried to get PK to land reliably on them but that's a spell you really need to be able to brute force. Not every spell can be as broken awesome or useful as Evard's I suppose. That spell really, really spoils you.

Flesh to Stone I'll try to experiment with. You're right about TP scrolls.

[zehnvhex]

Am I missing something or is there anything we have that's really useful against wisps? They are the bane of my existence and other than stacking lightning absorb/resist it's the one thing I hate most about doing the druid chain is all the lightning ball/call lightning spam. I wonder if silence creature would work on them.

[mr420247]

Wisps

Hurl or no fail spell pen fod

Evasion and lightning absorb

Flesh to stone is almost ok but you have to spam enervation on guys to really get the most out of it expensive

[slarden]

Am I missing something or is there anything we have that's really useful against wisps? They are the bane of my existence and other than stacking lightning absorb/resist it's the one thing I hate most about doing the druid chain is all the lightning ball/call lightning spam. I wonder if silence creature would work on them.

Very nice guide!

best thing against wisps at low levels is single target each one starting with champ: consume + stricken followed by focused blast with strickened soul + strickened form which lowers their spellpower and adds stacks of vulnerability. They are generally hard to aoe with cone, but wave hits them hard if they are close together. I usually keep swap trinkets for all the absorbs and use electric absorb with the wisps. Warlocks solid MRR also helps.

Tentacles goes against a strength save, and Waves of Exhaustion (5th level spell) lowers strength as well as providing a moderate slow even if Tentacles is on cooldown. It's also a cone, so you can throw it out with the Eldritch Wave and cone blasts. I always take Finger of Death primarily because it wrecks beholders, which is a handy QoL thing when you run the VoN chain, RitD, etc.

Another thing to consider for a 4th level spell is Flesh to Stone rather than Teleport. Teleport is a spell that is very easy and convenient to cast from a scroll. Flesh to Stone sticks on low-fort mobs pretty consistently, holds for a long time before they get to make their second save attempt, and your blasts/bursts aren't effected at all (that I can tell) by the DR.

I think hold is better until you get mass hold at which time you can swap it out for flesh to stone. I agree, no reason to take teleport as it's a scroll available from the portable hole.

Just worth pointing out... the main EB shapes (blast, chain, cone, aura) can't have metamagics, but many other abilities can, and for free. So your bursts, Consume, & Stricken can all be greatly increased by turning the metas on for them.

Agreed I always take maximize level 1 and empower level 3. Stricken one shots nearly everything in the game at low levels with the extra 225 spellpower (12d6 damage boosted by 300+ spellpower scaling at 125% spellpower at low levels effectively). Consume is not, bad stricken is super front loaded.

[zehnvhex]

The problem I have with that is they are single target on fairly long cooldowns. One shotting things is great and all but if you step into say, Necro 1 and have a pull of 10~15 mobs I find a quickened web with slightly higher DC is more useful than single targeting things with stricken.

Typically I grab 10+ mobs, web them, cone them down, rinse repeat.

I'm not going to argue that there's no value in max/emp earlier since having that boosted stricken for the handful of boss mobs you encounter is fun and the value in +DC's is marginal at best. I used to take max/emp earlier as well but after 8~ or so TR's I found that I was casting stricken a grand total of maybe 1 time per quest, if that. So even a small boost to my web DC's was providing more value for me.

Once you hit 12+ and you have either aura bursts or wave + evard's then max/emp are very much worth it is why I take them then. Prior to level 10 the only ability I was using that got boosted was stricken and I found that against 2 targets cone was more time efficient or I'd just charm one of them and keep running.

[slarden]

The problem I have with that is they are single target on fairly long cooldowns. One shotting things is great and all but if you step into say, Necro 1 and have a pull of 10~15 mobs I find a quickened web with slightly higher DC is more useful than single targeting things with stricken.

Typically I grab 10+ mobs, web them, cone them down, rinse repeat.

I'm not going to argue that there's no value in max/emp earlier since having that boosted stricken for the handful of boss mobs you encounter is fun and the value in +DC's is marginal at best. I used to take max/emp earlier as well but after 8~ or so TR's I found that I was casting stricken a grand total of maybe 1 time per quest, if that. So even a small boost to my web DC's was providing more value for me.

Once you hit 12+ and you have either aura bursts or wave + evard's then max/emp are very much worth it is why I take them then. Prior to level 10 the only ability I was using that got boosted was stricken and I found that against 2 targets cone was more time efficient or I'd just charm one of them and keep running.

I don't really consider those alternatives. Web and Tentacles is for cc. Stricken and consume are for taking down the most dangerous enemies quicker at low levels. So you might stricken the hero champ and cone them all. I haven't really noticed failing on any spells without quicken at low levels. Probably in part because ship buffs negate most elemental damage.

Different people have different playstyles and that's fine. The best choice is the one that works for that person.

[zehnvhex]

The best choice is the one that works for that person.

100% Agreed.

I tend to use suggestion more since that's basically the same as a kill + bonus damage on anything around it. It became more a matter of "okay until max/emp become useful at 9/12, what are the best feats I can grab?"

Quicken was the obvious choice for level 1 since being able to fire off shield/master touches while being beat on was nice. Especially useful on my test first lifers. Quicken is just always useful. So that left levels 3 and 6.

I considered early mental toughness but that 1% crit isn't really felt and low level dps is not much of an issue. I'm mostly 1-rounding (3xCone) groups of mobs anyways.

I've played around with a few other feats. Enlarge and Extend were mostly pointless. I considered eschew even but really the only spells I cast that take reagents are level 2 and 4 so I don't lose that much inventory. Mobs tend to have either obscene (requiring PL's) or no spell pen so spell pen was kinda out.

Force of personality was a consideration for a long time but I started to track how often I got hit with will save spells and it really wasn't as often as I thought it would be.

I found that suggestion was getting resisted far more than I liked and I was having a hard time getting decent charisma/DC gear from random drops so I started picking up spell focus. At low levels you're right in that range where every DC does count so having my charms be that much more reliable was really useful.

So in the end I settled on 2 DC boosting feats. For my main that's wiz past life and completionist. For my first life tests it was +1 enchantment DC's since those are the ones that really need it. I was really happy with the results and it was pretty obvious the difference.

[happypuppy]

Thanks for the write up, was fun to read and educational. I really appreciate the gifs and how to exploit the "uniqueness" of enemy AI and hit detection, especially a build that is made for casuals such as myself.

[nitronova]

Good read. Useful too. Thanks OP.

[Sproutecus]

Thanks for the write up, Im only on my 2nd lock life (level 6) so there were a few things that were new, and a few I figured out on my last life that it is good to see a seasoned veteran noted the same things (strafing. I will likely try your enhancement pattern for my next life though.


One comment on the Stricken debate, I have found that max/empowered stricken is GREAT for one shotting reapers at low level which frankly is the only thing I am at risk of dying from (30 reaper points helps a lot). That means I went directly for cone and then shifted to TS til I get stanch. I also use consume for the speed boost to get me from point A to point B faster.

But cone is sooooo good at killing groups of mobs that I find that I am not missing having stanch yet. Ill get it in a few levels, so maybe between now and then the lack of stanch will become more problematic.


Some questions:

Is it really worth it to go ES from 12-16? I just stayed cone from 1-30 last life (although I played with the balance of TS/SE) and I seemed to be doing really well. If I grouped with ES locks I would kill just as fast without too many problems.

I have 1 wiz Pl, 3x Sorc, and 3x Cleric. but I always seem to struggle with Enh DC's, even at low level (running HE/R1). Plus it just seems easier to EBT/Web stuff and cone it down.) Am I missing something obvious? Should I focus on my Conj DC's to maxmize web and damage from EBT, or should I focus on Enchant for CC, or perhaps Evo for better crit chances?

Someone above mentioned Waves of Exhaustion. Have you tried it? Does the slow effect help when strafing/kiting?

[zehnvhex]

One comment on the Stricken debate

I've done both and personally I found I enjoyed the DC's to more reliably land my low level CC's. Usually reapers come in packs of mobs and by the time I finish AE'ing the mob pack down, the reaper has only one more hit to go anyways.

Your mileage may vary. If you find that reapers are giving you problems and the extra damage makes the difference then go for it. Slaarden for example prefers to take out high priority targets first then deal with the rank and file enemies. I'm more of a kill 'em all and deal with any that remain type. Both are viable. It's a playstyle difference at that point.

Is it really worth it to go ES from 12-16?

Yes and no. This is more of an 'intro to warlocks' guide for people who are first or second lifing it. Enlightened Spirit is pure and utter garbage. It's lower dps, lower survivability, garbage single target damage. For a first/second time Warlock though I feel it's important to get it out of the way so you can see how hilariously broken it is until it stops being good 3 levels later when mob HP catches up.

Once you get the hang of the class and have some game knowledge under your belt then sticking to TS/SE is probably the better bet. My clear speeds are about the same. I've done the RL saga on R2 as both builds at level 12 and I clock in at about the same clear speed. It's just after 6~7 levels of holding down cone it's fun to mix it up a bit for a few levels while the power curve hasn't caught up yet.

Ench. vs. Conj. Vs. Evo

Pre-20 Evo is not worth getting. Your pact damage is the only thing that has an Evo save and even from level 1 it casts as a level 9 spell. So provided you're maximizing your charisma the base save at level one is 19 + Cha + evo. This means that all you really need is to keep your charisma up and you'll be fine through most of heroics.

Conj you can build up, but mob str is so low that I never really worry about it. The bigger issue is going to be spell pen, but by the time you really start hitting mobs with high spell resist you have evard's and the only part of that spell that has to worry about spell pen is the third component (the bonus damage). The initial damage and root do not.

Charm is just a poor mans insta-kill so that's what I tend to focus on. I specifically try not to get no fail on it though so that when I charm a pack of mobs they end up killing each other. Wizard PL + enchantment focus + spell mastery (+2 to all DC's) + keeping my charisma at an okay level is usually enough.

Someone above mentioned Waves of Exhaustion. Have you tried it? Does the slow effect help when strafing/kiting?

It does but anything that can be waved can be hit by Evard's and that's just always going to be the superior option. If you're in a situation where you can't use Evard's it's an okay backup.

Most of my dungeoneering goes such that I gobble up 20+ mobs, Evard's them, triple cone attack and if anything actually survived 1~3 cones usually finish them off. On boss mobs with adds I make use of charm to make it go faster.

[zehnvhex]

Some changes to the build for people who have some experience under their belt.

1 - Instead of exp. retreat as your level 1 spell, take False Life. False Life is 10+CL (max 10) temp hp, which combined with Feigned Health, is pretty neat. At level 10 for me that's 62 temp hp on a 4 second cooldown. It's my go to for spammable temp hp. Great if you have abbot quiver or other good sources of run speed.

2 - Sometimes I take my first level as a barbarian. You get an extra (stacking) 10% runspeed. The only noticeable difference for our build purposes is that it delays getting Evard's till level 11. Not a terribly big deal and 20 levels of 10% extra runspeed I feel is worth it.

3 - One thing I didn't really mention is that when you take Stanch, you get Crushing Despair as a 3rd level spell. Even when mobs save against Despair, they still take a -5 penalty to will saves. Not a terribly big deal on elite/reaper where we cone everything to death, but in later parts of the game or as you get higher in reaper where you use charms more often, this spell is a great 'prep' spell before casting mass charm.

4 - Confusion SLA is actually really good for using on caster mobs. While confused they will only auto-attack so things like ice flesners, famine reapers, etc... It's usually better to charm these kinds of mobs but the nice thing about confusion is you can still attack the target. A good pickup later in the game once you have all the DPS talents.

5 - Consider dropping the spell crit feats in favor of Force of Will and Insightful Reflexes. At low levels the difference in value you get between your dex and int or even wis and cha and the number of mobs that cast deadly spells is relatively minor. As you go up in difficulty tiers and have significantly better gear available, it might be advisable to get the better saves. For example, at level 15 (when I would normally take the first spell crit feat), my charisma bonus is 15. My wis bonus is 6. +9 to will saves sounds pretty....pretty good.

[Sproutecus]

Im curious what your Enhancements look like at 20?

Do you go for bewitching Blast or do you avoid it to avoid the charm bug?


My first life I went to T5 core and top of the tree in TS instead of SE. It seemed like the bonus to spell crit from the cores, DC's and pact damage from the tier 5 Enh would provide more DPS than Wave and Supreme Hunger. (assume I am going to cap). Is that not the case?

[zehnvhex]

If going post-20 blaster build then 39 T5 Soul Eater + 41 all cores in TS is the way to go. For trash clearing Eldritch Wave is an absolute beast. For single target Feed on Magic lets you stack Arcane Pulse for basically free. You can keep a rotation of wave + consume + Stricken + wave + pulse + whatever else going for a very long time.

DC build it's a bit tougher because you have to decide between FoD SLA or +2 DC's. FoD usually wins out though since rarely is the 2 DC's gonna be make or break for you. Though honestly if you want to do a DC build I'd recommend doing Sorcerer instead.

Bewitching Blast I typically take. I just make a habit of not charming after the initial pull and it's not an issue. It'd be nice if it was a toggle of some sort though so that if you do run with someone else who might do mid-combat charms you can shut it off.

[Sproutecus]

If going post-20 blaster build then 39 T5 Soul Eater + 41 all cores in TS is the way to go. For trash clearing Eldritch Wave is an absolute beast. For single target Feed on Magic lets you stack Arcane Pulse for basically free. You can keep a rotation of wave + consume + Stricken + wave + pulse + whatever else going for a very long time.

DC build it's a bit tougher because you have to decide between FoD SLA or +2 DC's. FoD usually wins out though since rarely is the 2 DC's gonna be make or break for you. Though honestly if you want to do a DC build I'd recommend doing Sorcerer instead.

Bewitching Blast I typically take. I just make a habit of not charming after the initial pull and it's not an issue. It'd be nice if it was a toggle of some sort though so that if you do run with someone else who might do mid-combat charms you can shut it off.

I tried EW on my last build and it was underwhelming (or more likely, I was doing it wrong). Any cast seems to break the blast sequence, which means lost blast DPS. Even quickened. And while being able to empower/maximize it is nice, it only adds like 12% damage at level 30 (maybe 20% at level 20) is my numbers are right. (that also applies to consume and stricken. They just seem meh in trash pulls. Even single target seems kind of meh, although I will definitely be trying a rotation with arcane pulse once I get it.

On top of the the RL belt makes my acid damage so much better than force that consume and stricken (and arcane pulse) seem have a second strike against them.

so what am I doing/thinking wrong? I am guessing it is something because I know others use your config, but I just dont see it.

[zehnvhex]

Wave shouldn't be clipping at all. It's great damage and single-handedly makes T5 SE the best warlock T5. The rest is just gravy.

Consume once fully stacked does about the same DPS as just blasting. It's uh...132 average every 2 seconds while blasting is what, 88ish I think every 1.3 seconds or so? In terms of click economy consume + arcane pulse is just insane for a warlock. Blasting is probably the lowest dps option you have. Stricken is technically worse dps, but it allows you to apply vulnerability and -prr/mrr which more and more mobs have these days.

Acid is nice but it's like, 1/8th of your damage. Worth getting, but not worth prioritizing.