Requesting Warlock build

[kittyeatingbrownie]

I am a returning vet with generic TR gear to get me through most classes to cap. I have not even started on RR lives and was hoping to find a build that will let me zerg my way through 30 to also finish my ETR's. My friends have all said that lock is the class to make it happen. I usually have a hard time grouping cause of my time zone so a build that can solo low level reaper would be nice. Also any tips or recommended play styles/gear for leveling would make it easier! Thanks in advance!

[HungarianRhapsody]

I am a returning vet with generic TR gear to get me through most classes to cap. I have not even started on RR lives and was hoping to find a build that will let me zerg my way through 30 to also finish my ETR's. My friends have all said that lock is the class to make it happen. I usually have a hard time grouping cause of my time zone so a build that can solo low level reaper would be nice. Also any tips or recommended play styles/gear for leveling would make it easier! Thanks in advance!

Warlock is ridiculous from level 4 through level 20. It's less impressive in Epics. It's still very good, but it isn't "solo everything on R2 because it's honestly faster to solo than it is to wait for the group" good.

Tip 1: Enlightened Spirit is a trap. It looks really good on paper, but the circle bursts aren't as much DPS as you're going to want and the self-healing is plenty to let you sleepwalk through quests on Normal, but it isn't meaningfully different than Stanch (Tainted Scholar) plus a twisted Rejuvination Cocoon from Primal Avatar.

Tip 2: Even if your DCs are garbage, Evard's Black Tentacles will lock down anything that isn't immune to it. The DC doesn't actually matter for the crowd control part of Evard's Black Tentacles. Is that a bug? Is that intended? I don't know and I don't care. If your DCs are decent for the quests that you're going in, then both Evard's Black Tentacles and Web together mean you don't have to worry about melee opponents pretty much ever. Evard's Black Tentacles is the biggest reason to play a Warlock.

Tip 3: Epic Feats and Epic Destinies make a big difference. There are some real garbage feats and there are some real gems.
I took -
21 Epic Eldritch blast
24 Epic Spell Penetration
27 Ruin (that Untyped damage is increased with Impulse spell power - it's WAY better than it looks!)
30 Irrelevant because you're going to Epic Reincarnate. I do like Greater Ruin, though.

Epic Destiny feats at 26, 28, 29 are going to be based on how many Destinies you've completed. You can take Epic Arcane Edritch Blast once you've capped one Arcane destiny. Other feats are going to take more than one capped destiny. I like Arcane Pulse and Forced Escape, but a bunch of those feats are good.

Tip 4: Don't buy Epic Hearts of Wood. You get 2 Heart Seeds per quest after you hit cap (as long as you don't have any ransack penalty on that quest - if you have never done the quest on Normal, then you can run Normal x2 and get Heart Seeds Twice, but if you've run it on Normal before then you can only get Heart Seeds once per day on Normal). Just run 20 quick quests and you'll have that Epic Heart of Wood. Save the DDO Points for other stuff *cough XP pots*.

[mr420247]

For en dailies or r1-3 loot farming or r1 raid grinding for raid gear and threads

es aint bad shiradi still works too

And a first lifer just doing epls can easily dump spell pen

If there not doing a lot of dc casting

A good race helps human, dragonborn, drow

good feats maximize, empower, quiken, intensify, embolden, ruins, pulse if you just want dps

And good defenses try max your prr, mrr 20 lock or 17lock3fighter should work

Gear ravenloft slavers memoirs hat

[Emerge2012]

Chain shape till lvl 6-7 and then do cone until 12. Make sure you get a ton of the increased pact damage enhancements as they're a majority of your damage. At 12 switch over to a Enlightened Spirit build - the temp hp and Empowered/Maximized bursts are OP till about lvl 17 or so and it's easily the most survivable way to go. If you're mostly solo, especially in epics, I'd stick with the ES tank type of build. Boss fights take a long time because the single target DPS is quite poor but you'll clear trash pretty quick and, most importantly, you'll stay alive. Gets rather high intimidate also which is great for party play.

There's basically 2 ways to build a warlock well and a bunch of tweener builds that aren't very good. Go about 44ap into ES for the defenses and light spellpower, 24-26 into Tainted Scholar for utterdark/crit multi/deathward/pact damage/confusion proc, empower/maximize/quicken and whatever you else you want like spell foci for dc's (and twists in epics) and shield mastery feats for the PRR.

The other way is to go about 35ap into Soul Eater for the speed boost/consume/stricken/wave/crit% and the core 5 crit%, then 45ish into Tainted Scholar for basically the whole tree and capstone. This route will get you good caster DC's, high blast (cone) damage, and a way to apply vulnerable. This is generally what I use 20+ to farm Wiz King, which is the only way to fly if you're wanting epic lives.

But whatever you do don't be another one of those people that does a half baked build. Don't float around in Enlightened Spirit using chain shape as this is the gimp of all gimp warlock builds that doesn't have the dc's/dps of a real warlock and yet misses out on the actually good parts of ES at the same time. Choose a focus - dc's/dps or tank.

Even going the tank route it doesn't really matter whether you focus on con or cha and pact choice is always up in the air. GOO (acid) is by far the best for levelling heroics but heals clay golems in Wiz King, Fiend gets hurl which is very nice deleting champs in epics, and Fey is nice for the leap ability and dancing ball for epics. Fire/Acid will do significantly more dps though due to the lvl 10/29 ravenloft belts.

[mr420247]

If you do tank 3 fighter levels take em late 16, 17, 19 for max bab for free sheild mastery, improved shield mastery

That gets you 3 hate auras too and the ravenloft gogs you can tank just about anything

[Emerge2012]

If you do tank 3 fighter levels take em late 16, 17, 19 for max bab for free sheild mastery, improved shield mastery

That gets you 3 hate auras too and the ravenloft gogs you can tank just about anything

Better to stay pure. 2sec aura tics by itself are more valuable than everything fighter can give you. You lose way too much by losing the the last 2 ES cores and will lose significant DPS/CC from Tainted Scholar also in order to put points into the Defender tree.

[slarden]

There's basically 2 ways to build a warlock well

This is not really true. There are many ways to build a good warlock outside your parameters.

As for DPS alot of times things get overstated. For example the TS capstone is worth about 6.5% boost in DPS, but that doesn't factor in instakill. When I switched from TS capstone to SE capstone I didn't even notice the dps hit, but really noticed the utility of devour the soul against high-fort mobs.

The reality is alot of mobs are wiped out with wail, 2 fingers, pk and devour the soul so the actual dps hit is even less than the 6.5% mathematical amount which really only exists against bosses. I found it's fine to take 6.5% longer against bosses for the ability to kill that high fort champ immediately.

As for the discussion about a /3 splash it really depends on what capstone you would be taking if pure and the reasons for the splash. If you take the ES capstone there is obviously no benefit. As for the dps hit you talk about, at epic levels if you run in divine crusader as one example you are getting dps from energy burst, divine crusader plus "effective dps" from instakills so the dps hit on the blast may not matter much if overall survivability is increased. I am not saying it's the right answer - I am just saying you shouldn't rule it out as always the wrong answer.

As an example I've tried running in unyielding sentinel to see what I am missing and I haven't noticed any real benefit and notice the loss of dps/dc. I'll stick with exalted angel and my wings, but I see alot of people running US even though I find it always worse - so it's obviously working for them. So the best setup is what works best for you as an individual and if /3 splashes and US keeps you alive where you would otherwise die - those are good options.

[Emerge2012]

This is not really true. There are many ways to build a good warlock outside your parameters.

As for DPS alot of times things get overstated. For example the TS capstone is worth about 6.5% boost in DPS, but that doesn't factor in instakill. When I switched from TS capstone to SE capstone I didn't even notice the dps hit, but really noticed the utility of devour the soul against high-fort mobs.

The reality is alot of mobs are wiped out with wail, 2 fingers, pk and devour the soul so the actual dps hit is even less than the 6.5% mathematical amount which really only exists against bosses. I found it's fine to take 6.5% longer against bosses for the ability to kill that high fort champ immediately.

As for the discussion about a /3 splash it really depends on what capstone you would be taking if pure and the reasons for the splash. If you take the ES capstone there is obviously no benefit. As for the dps hit you talk about, at epic levels if you run in divine crusader as one example you are getting dps from energy burst, divine crusader plus "effective dps" from instakills so the dps hit on the blast may not matter much if overall survivability is increased. I am not saying it's the right answer - I am just saying you shouldn't rule it out as always the wrong answer.

As an example I've tried running in unyielding sentinel to see what I am missing and I haven't noticed any real benefit and notice the loss of dps/dc. I'll stick with exalted angel and my wings, but I see alot of people running US even though I find it always worse - so it's obviously working for them. So the best setup is what works best for you as an individual and if /3 splashes and US keeps you alive where you would otherwise die - those are good options.

US for the tank types only as it's a pretty solid waste for everything else. And my 2 basic pathways guideline are definitely geared toward the newer players that won't have good DC's. But in general for the more experienced players I fully agree that instakills are the way to go.

Full DC caster running in EA is the only good high reaper warlock route though without doubt.