Pact DC for Great Old One

[Deathbrings]

I would like to propose a change in the dc of GOO-lock pact from evocation to conjuration. A while back they changed many of the acid effects in the game to be conjuration DC instead of evocation, but left GOO pact save as evocation. The reasons I'd like the change are as follows:

1.) Warlock has no evocation spells

2.) Fiend can focus on evocation for pact if it wants and then benefit from draconic incarnation energy burst/dragon breath as they are both evocation as well.

3.) This would make GOO able to focus on pact dc, while also being able to benefit from acid DI since those EB and DB are conjuration DC.

4.) This would cut down the number of DC GOO-lock needs to focus on from evo, conj, ench (possible swap of one to necro) to just conj and enchant (possible swap 1 for necro).

5.) Feywild dreamer set seems tailor made for warlock of either Fey or GOO and gives ench, illusion, and conjuration on the individual pieces (no evocation).

Here I'll leave an argument for those that may argue that blast-lock is bad and you should just run DC lock. Sure. Even if you run your warlock that way, GOO gets left behind. Say you run enchant DC lock GOO doesn't get anything great there. I'd argue Discoball, and howl of terror are both better than mass suggestion. This would allow for a Conj DC lock, utilizing tentacles to the best of their ability, and things like trap the sole for insta kill (Warlock doesn't need the dragonshard component according to wiki so actually decent if that is the case).

I suggest this as a small change, that likely wouldn't take more than a few minutes (should be as simple as redirecting the dc from evo bonus to conjuration bonus). I've had people tell me that this would make their pact require both evo and conj, but only the pact damage has a save. I've also had people tell me that it only looks at eldritch blast for the DC, which obviously isn't true as each pact goes against a different save. I literally see no downsides to this, but am open to listening to others with more experience in warlock. As it stands though I'll just run fiend evo ench or fey ench necro and completely avoid GOO as it just feels confused. Now I know this isn't the update warlock needs, but it is a relatively small tweak, that actually has a chance of getting done in an update as a QoL fix for GOO. Thanks for taking the time to read this, and may your warlock builds be enjoyable

[mr420247]

Nice write up i def think warlocks need some tweaks now that arcane casters have started to get passes and spells

Epics there just not that viable any more compared to wizard or sorc starting with getting there epic dps feats for free again

With legendary levels up to 40 coming if they don't get some kind of a pass there pretty much dead in the water

I'm just waiting for a decent club or the next pass or nerf hammer to hit b4 deciding which way to go

[davidstogner]

i really hope they make these changes

[slarden]

The only school that requires any DC support for warlock is necromancy and only at level 30. Conjuration and Enchantment are solid by default if you max out your charisma and generic spell focus mastery. The same is true for evocation for a goo caster because it goes against a will save which on average is the lowest of the 3 saves. There are obviously exceptions but as a general rule goo already is in a great place.

Warlocks have a relatively low dc potential compared to other classes - would rather see warlock DCs bumped a bit in the enhancement trees. Part of the reason why DCs were scaled back for warlock after the first offering was complaints about synergies with exalted angel and the lack of comparable DC for int casters. That advantage is gone as magister is now the better DC tree.

[mr420247]

The other thing locks need badly is more epic red named dps mainly crits i think

Look at alchs n sorcs now 100 crits no prob lock lots of multiplier but no crits n tons of useless filler in some of the trees

Like useless summon enhancements that have and never get used how bout crits there

[Tilomere]

The other thing locks need badly is more epic red named dps mainly crits i think

Does warlock blast trigger harmonic resonance? If you want red named dps, have you tried LGS Ash + LGS Ooze on a SE/TS fey scoundrel warlock in Fatesinger for harmonic resonance and fire spell power as sonic spell power?

If you convert the force blast damage to evil, it will be affected by MRR debuffs. This gives

-31 MRR = 1.31x damage
20% vulnerability (20% more all damage) = 1.2x damage
50% sonic vulnerability (50% more sonic damage) = 1.5x damage

Net: 1.57x evil damage, 2.35x sonic damage, fire spell power used as sonic (so your fire EB is also good). Dunno if it works though, warlock blasts don't consistently trigger spell effects.

[mr420247]

I have not why don't you test that for me in some r10s mate let me know how that goes

You could try it i do have all the lgs debuffers mate like i said before if you group its redundant only 1 peep can stack it

The stacking vuln would be good if that works but fatesinger just doesn't have the big aoe nukes that you need to clear trash fast enough not to die first

2'nd problem is there is no enhanced radiance or resonance gear in the game idk why its pretty outdated now dps wise

like fvs, bard spell singers ain't dpsin r10s with light, sonic spells any time soon or sonic sorcs either there's a reason there's no sonic, acid sorcs at end game

[Tilomere]

Mmm, 18/2 cleric fire domain + scoundrel using fire spell power for both sonic and light, but it's a no-go if you are stuck to draconic breath. Warlock blasts are all weird though, don't always count as spells, so may not work. Eh, just musing. Next for me is some shuriken executioner paladin. It's going to turn out to have terrible dps period, AoE or single target ... so maybe the silver lining is that at least you have big aoe nukes to clear trash fast?

[Tilomere]

So, if as you say you won't leave draconic, and fire is the only bypass you have available with max necro DCs from tiefling, why don't you just use 2x Spiral like everyone else? It doesn't matter if there is other gear available as you say you can't use it anyways because you can't leave your draconic setup, and draconic is set up for Spiral.

r10s

Don't tie yourself to the end of a string if you don't want to dance like a marionette.