Are Fey Warlock Builds Dead?

[Tpetrzelka]

My very first build as a Warlock was a Fey build and I am starting to notice that he seems to be outdated with all the updates. Is Fey a dead path?

[C-Dog]

No, it's just different.

Fey is a bit of a pain b/c it wants Perform rather than Spellpower to boost the Pact damage, which doesn't overlap w/ the usual spell selection, and is only half-rank for 'Locks. (You ~could~ grab an initial level of Bard or something for full ranks in Perform - meh.) But either way, this makes it less popular w/ first life due to gearing and skill point demands/etc.

The upside is (almost?) nothing is resistant to Sonic, which is not true w/ Fire (Fiend being "the" most popular) or Acid (GOO a close second). W/ some monsters, you even have to turn off your Pact damage or you heal them almost as much as you're hurting them!

[slarden]

No, the only issue with fey is that both fire and acid have belts with stacking spellpower and fey does not and that is on top of the energy critical past life stance which benefit acid/fire but not sonic . They also synergize with energy burst and fire synergizes with divine crusader. LGS has items that improve critical damage and once again sonic is left out.

I have a guild mate that runs duo warlock with me - I go goo and he goes fey and they compliment each other well.

[Sunnie]

Another drawback with Fey pact is that the blasts allow for reflex saves, so instead of half damage on the sonic part you deal zero damage when mobs have evasion and make their save. And if they have improved evasion the sonic part never deals more than half of what it normally does. But even so, nothing in the game is healed by sonic and very few things resist it, so if you get the DC high enough it's still a very solid choice damagewise. Personally I consider the extra spells and abilities of Fey to be a little worse than those of Fiend and GOO, but it's a close thing and mostly a matter of personal preference.

[mr420247]

Feys ok if your bladeforged thats about it

If your doing lots of raiding these days for threads

1'st question is usually do u Hurl

2'nd question Do u frog

You get the picture

[Strambotica]

Like was said before. its a personal choice.

i love my Fey CC warlock, the necro dc is ñeh (92)... but can get high enchantment for mass hold, charm, otto... (98 atm... because got those 3 necro focus twist)
** numbers dont consider reaper or Ascencance

and atm... the only mob that i found that have the reflex save and gives 0 sonic damage its the red bugbear on wpm.

imo evil + sonic better choice if running EA... with some force for evard's tentacles.

BUT its true that Fey needs more spellpower... since dont exist Enhanced Resonance or Enhanced Radiance items, not even extra critical from the LGS items, neither a set like Mountainskin (for acid ones).

And mass frog!!! dont forget frogs... so you want a full SL wisdom item :P

PD: sorry for my bad english ^^

[-D_Rock-]

My very first build as a Warlock was a Fey build and I am starting to notice that he seems to be outdated with all the updates. Is Fey a dead path?

Nope!

It all comes down to what you want to play. Years ago I used to play sorcerer religiously. I liked big numbers back then and the DPS was fun, say 4 years ago???. Eventually I realized well, everyone does. Who actually likes controlling the flow of battle though? Who enjoys completely steering the direction the fight will go? I gave up caring about all out DPS, or INSTA kills (I have alts who can do that I want something original, unique, that I can call my own). Thus the support build was born.

I did about 60 warlock lives in a row to learn the class intimately as I was infatuated with it. Fiend? mastered. GOO? Not to my play style. Fey? Now I really like these guys as they have SERIOUS crowd control. This is where the Fey shine , not to mention that nearly all mobs do not have any sonic resistance (if you want to DPS at moments and light if you go Enlightened Spirit, which I do).

I run my build through reaper 10's with no problems in parties. They love having a dedicated CC'r in party to make sure everything is held, dancing, or a statue (the gem that is the forgotten flesh to stone). Oh no! a fey champ? how will you CC that?! web, FTS. done. it's so fun for me.

now when you get to epic and legendary there is even more to look forward to. you have angel ED which is by far a no brainer to me. Charisma, and more Charisma for one. Epic is really where this build takes off. you can now heal others in group via MCMW and Wrath plus have dc's upped from charisma boost from angel. Not to mention Cocoon twists. by wearing devo items you are now a healer in groups. (i've been the healer in raids no problem by having items to boost healing). Kind of silly when you think about it. but that's what my personal build is all about. heavy CC first, healing second, dps last.

I think if people get out of their mind sets they will truly see what a Fey is capable of. If you don't enjoy playing that kind of role then perhaps that is not for you. I play this as my main after having acquired around 90 past lives and yes, I did opt out of pure dps build. why? because I felt it limited me in the ways I can help the parties I group with and also because of the way most want to be the DPS. I care not for glory or fame of DPS god, more of the mastermind of all.

granted I do have about 90 past lives but fey is my love regardless. im in love with my personal support build nowadays. don't care about dps or instas *which I still take though as back up just because my DC's can do it*

DC: 110 enchant. 90 Generic. old school DC caster at heart always. (and I gave up a few feats to max my dc's for versatility. I could go higher without boosts, but it seems fine in reaper raids

Your friendly neighborhood casterman always.

[-D_Rock-]

No, the only issue with fey is that both fire and acid have belts with stacking spellpower and fey does not and that is on top of the energy critical past life stance which benefit acid/fire but not sonic . They also synergize with energy burst and fire synergizes with divine crusader. LGS has items that improve critical damage and once again sonic is left out.

I have a guild mate that runs duo warlock with me - I go goo and he goes fey and they compliment each other well.

your playing fey wrong imo. but that's me it's not about DPS. get over DPS mind sets and you can achieve greater heights truth. also there is empyrean which you can twist, also make sure draconic energy burst is twisted with fire element as well. but again, I personally do not gear or DPS first, its dc's. support. that's where fey shine imho.

[-D_Rock-]

No, it's just different.

Fey is a bit of a pain b/c it wants Perform rather than Spellpower to boost the Pact damage, which doesn't overlap w/ the usual spell selection, and is only half-rank for 'Locks. (You ~could~ grab an initial level of Bard or something for full ranks in Perform - meh.) But either way, this makes it less popular w/ first life due to gearing and skill point demands/etc.

The upside is (almost?) nothing is resistant to Sonic, which is not true w/ Fire (Fiend being "the" most popular) or Acid (GOO a close second). W/ some monsters, you even have to turn off your Pact damage or you heal them almost as much as you're hurting them!

well said. also you can up perform and spellcraft at the same time and get benefits of both. also heal for support builds. I take all of them. why bother with conc??? quicken is for that. I honestly think people are just playing fey wrong. they don't get it. it's not always about DPS. some times it is, but if your party has dps, a fey can shine through. heh like the reference there?

[-D_Rock-]

Like was said before. its a personal choice.

i love my Fey CC warlock, the necro dc is ñeh (92)... but can get high enchantment for mass hold, charm, otto... (98 atm... because got those 3 necro focus twist)
** numbers dont consider reaper or Ascencance

and atm... the only mob that i found that have the reflex save and gives 0 sonic damage its the red bugbear on wpm.

imo evil + sonic better choice if running EA... with some force for evard's tentacles.

BUT its true that Fey needs more spellpower... since dont exist Enhanced Resonance or Enhanced Radiance items, not even extra critical from the LGS items, neither a set like Mountainskin (for acid ones).

And mass frog!!! dont forget frogs... so you want a full SL wisdom item :P

PD: sorry for my bad english ^^

I don't even slot sonic at all (even though I could do the strahd trinket for a swap but meh). I just Fig, let others pure dps builds shine through and I will heal em up np. when I run with friends running DPS builds, I consider my DPS meh and just CC/Heal/DPS last, even though I can go over 1300 light SPP as I go Enlightened Spirit. I'm running with Dusk, the Light Descends, Hands of the Dawn Healer, but again. I sack DPS to be full support on this build. CC 1st, Heals 2nd, DPS 3rd. it's just how I play my personal build and it works great. Give me more mobs to CC and I will be a happy DDO'r.

[TallMikeM]

guess this is mostly a question for D rock, but all input welcome. I do love my fey lock, tried all 3 and fey just seems to fit for me, but I was wondering what AP split you're all using?

[HungarianRhapsody]

Fey and Fiend have some nice stuff in them, but I can't imagine going through a life without Knock. Honestly, that's the biggest reason I keep picking GOO.

[Octarino]

I agree with @-D_Rock-, in that the power of the warlock is in the spells not the pact damage.

The pact damage is just filler, an afterthought. If you are relying on blasting or aura damage past level 15, chances are you're playing a weak warlock. Fey is often underrated and GOO is often overrated in my opinion. -D_Rock- has seen me play and knows I also make a compelling case for Fiend.


What you choose depends on what you are playing. Great Old One is strong in heroics and is strong from 9-15, until Fiend gets hurl. But GOO is the weakest pact in epics and at cap. In my opinion, you shouldn't be taking GOO unless you are regularly doing warlock heroics/racials.

Hurl is strong because it bypasses spell resistance. Fey is the weakest class until level 17 when it gains Otto's, a very long lasting will save AOE. cc. But Fiend also has a powerful (underrated!) AOE CC spell, yes it doesn't last very long, but it can be cast very quickly and cast indefintely - it can and will save your butt when mobs/reapers sneak up behind you and try to catch you unaware. It can sometimes take too long to turn around and cast tentacles/mass hold/Otto's...

I usually play high skull reaper with a solid tank and often one other caster, so CC is rarely a problem, and I tend to focus on instakilling. Soul Eater is the strongest warlock enhancement tree in my opinion... Likewise, Exalted Angel is much better than Unyielding Sentinel. If you are getting hit, you have to ask yourself why? (that said, you can still get 2000+ hp without using Unyielding Sentinel or Enlightened spirit, without compromising DCs and without a wingload of reaper points.)

[slarden]

your playing fey wrong imo. but that's me it's not about DPS. get over DPS mind sets and you can achieve greater heights truth. also there is empyrean which you can twist, also make sure draconic energy burst is twisted with fire element as well. but again, I personally do not gear or DPS first, its dc's. support. that's where fey shine imho.

This is a reasonable approach if you are depending on others to carry the dps and other things for you.

While I do join R10s and do fine in high reaper, I primarily solo R5s and a more balanced build works much better and GOO is much better than fey for soloing with the current available gear/options. Fey definitely has some advantages which I already mentioned, but it's not as good for GOO for soloing where that dps does matter. It's just simple math. I am doing all the cc, all the heals, all the dps and must handle all the aggro so the extra dps really matters. Employing your build philosophy would increase my quest time with no real benefit so I think I'll pass.

As a side note I've never really had a problem gearing for max dc while still having solid dps - so I think your entire premise is flawed about dumping dps- you don't need to dump dps to get your DCs to work.