Scoundrel Theory Builds - Thoughts?

[ThomasHunter]

For a bit now, I've been thinking of a Scoundrel who is either a pure Warlock or a 12Warlock/6Bard muticlass. I like the thought of another couple of "auras" that can get going - in this case specifically Hellish Rebuke and Obscuring Darkness. Both seem like they add some really fun ways to play. Of course, the Scoundrel allows you to play a Fey Pact Warlock and I am specifically thinking tier 5 ES.

A couple of initial observations before building this out on a the BuilderLite:

Pure - Seems like pure is good since I get the fastest tick of the Warlock aura going. Combine this with the Hellish Rebuke and Obscuring Darkness and this all seems pretty good. The downside is that the fighting part would be bad (nothing to add to damage really).

Multi Class - For this build, the ES aura would ticket much slower, but it wouldn't affect the Hellish Rebuke or the Obscuring Darkness stuff. However, assuming there were enough points to go around (I'm unsure actually), you could now get Charisma for damage in the SB tree. I'd be SB with an orb I am sure in both cases, but the fighting angle just seems better here.

Has anyone done anything similar? Any immediate pluses or negatives that jump out? I'd love to try one of these options to see how it goes.
Thanks and happy gaming!
Taleisin

[ValariusK]

Obscuring darkness was one I wanted to like, but couldn't. Its too lame and too long to deploy.
What scoundrel actually does well are bard mixes and pure bards. The turn to stone based off perform dc enhancement is awesome. The enhancements for a subset of the swashy weapons are good too.
Things I've done that worked with scoundrels---pure bard, bard 13/sorc6/fvs1 (that one is actually really good, the only thing it lacks is evasion, its got everything else and charisma to everything), and bard/arti/rogue inquisitor. All those worked well. Pure warlock would probably be decent too, but obviously would cost a +1 heart.

[droid327]

My lock currently was built for ES...not Scoundrel, but really all that's adding is more Sonic spellpower and minor proc damage.

Why /6 Bard? If you're just using it for access to SB and Different Tack, you only need /3. /6 doesnt even get you anything that /4 wouldnt.

My build was 15 Lock/3 Bard/2 FvS. /1 FvS gives you Divine Presence, which if you're a CHA based melee toon is a major boost. I took /2 FvS for Close Wounds SLA, which is amazing in Heroic (essentially free cost even with metas unlike native-cast Cure spells, can weave between attack animations almost seamlessly, and procs Feign Life), but I wasnt planning on taking it past 20.

That being said, my experience is that its waaay more gear-dependent than either a pure melee build or a pure blaster lock (melee DPS, defense, Light, Pact, and Positive casting), and its not that much stronger. You've got decent single-target damage like all Swashbucklers do, but taking on multiple mobs usually devolves to just waiting for your Bursts to come off cooldown. Aura ticks are just slow compared to your melee ROF, even with most of the cores. And it builds really slow since you spend points in LOTS of trees, but as an Iconic that's not so much an issue.

I ended up converting to a blaster lock just because Cone clears so much faster, even though I like the swash ES playstyle. Next life I'm just going to go to go 18/2 FvS for a solo build, because I still like CW SLA

If you wanted to stick with the Swash model, though (saves you from having to burn a Heart), I'd suggest /3 Bard /1 FvS. Gets you Different Tack and DP, and you're Iconic so you can rely on Cocoon for healing once you hit 20.