Looking for a Deep Gnome Warlock build for three ITRs

[lord_of_rage]

I'm looking for a fun Warlock build to get the three Deep Gnome Warlock lives knocked out for the MRR. I've got 4 racial points, the wiz past life, and full +7 tomes. Something that is comfortable in low skull reaper. I tend to solo most of the time. Type of Warlock doesn't matter. With three lives to do I'll most likely try more than one suggestion. I appreciate all the help. Cheers. I'm using hearts, so I'll be 20 Warlock.

[magaiti]

Wizard 1 Warlock 19 whatever warlock you want only w/o capstone

Wizard 6 Paladin 6 Warlock 8 melee, Mauls (paladin 6 for Silvanus), with T5 in either EK or KotC (warlock aura does proc EK "on offensive spell cast" stuff, but KotC T5 is arguably better)

[Discpsycho]

Wizard 6 Paladin 6 Warlock 8 melee, Mauls (paladin 6 for Silvanus), with T5 in either EK or KotC (warlock aura does proc EK "on offensive spell cast" stuff, but KotC T5 is arguably better)

You'd have to give up Knight's Transformation, which removes your crit benefits, because they're mutually exclusive

[lord_of_rage]

Wizard 1 Warlock 19 whatever warlock you want only w/o capstone

Wizard 6 Paladin 6 Warlock 8 melee, Mauls (paladin 6 for Silvanus), with T5 in either EK or KotC (warlock aura does proc EK "on offensive spell cast" stuff, but KotC T5 is arguably better)

I'm using hearts, so I'll be 20 warlock. The melee idea is interesting.

[slarden]

If you are using a heart it really depends on your playstyle.

Soul Eater / Tainted Scholar has a higher ceiling - better dcs, higher dps, less defense

Enlightened Spirit / Tainted Scholar is more of a blasting defensive build - very painfully slow boss fights if soloing at epic levels, but the extra hp and defenses make it easier to play. The dps against mobs is good, it's really just boss damage that is noticeably weaker.

Tainted Scholar Capstone builds are just flat-out weaker versions of alchemist and sorc dps builds right now, but it will still get the job done. It's not so much a tainted scholar capstone build is terrible as other builds were buffed to incredible levels while warlock was nerfed.

Unless you want to go tanky with shields you will want this for epic leveling: https://ddowiki.com/page/Item:Epic_Coalesced_Coinage - solid all the way until level 26 at least and possibly all the way to cap depending on whether you have some good off-hand lgs items available at 26.

The one-two punch of tentacles + greater color spray is really really good right now. If you ever wanted to try DC casting - this is the time to do it. You don't need top tier dcs to make this combo work well so you should use this combo with any build you try. If you are light-focused rather than force focused turn off metamagic on tentacles so it costs less.

Exalted Angel is almost certainly the best destiny for you.

[lord_of_rage]

If you are using a heart it really depends on your playstyle.

Soul Eater / Tainted Scholar has a higher ceiling - better dcs, higher dps, less defense

Enlightened Spirit / Tainted Scholar is more of a blasting defensive build - very painfully slow boss fights if soloing at epic levels, but the extra hp and defenses make it easier to play. The dps against mobs is good, it's really just boss damage that is noticeably weaker.

Tainted Scholar Capstone builds are just flat-out weaker versions of alchemist and sorc dps builds right now, but it will still get the job done. It's not so much a tainted scholar capstone build is terrible as other builds were buffed to incredible levels while warlock was nerfed.

Unless you want to go tanky with shields you will want this for epic leveling: https://ddowiki.com/page/Item:Epic_Coalesced_Coinage - solid all the way until level 26 at least and possibly all the way to cap depending on whether you have some good off-hand lgs items available at 26.

The one-two punch of tentacles + greater color spray is really really good right now. If you ever wanted to try DC casting - this is the time to do it. You don't need top tier dcs to make this combo work well so you should use this combo with any build you try. If you are light-focused rather than force focused turn off metamagic on tentacles so it costs less.

Thank you so much for your response. I was looking at your updated builds earlier. I was thinking about attempting to adapt your Bladeforged build to

Exalted Angel is almost certainly the best destiny for you.

Slarden thank you so much for your response. I was looking at your updated builds earlier. I was thinking about attempting to adapt your Bladeforged build to Deep Gnome. I love the idea of dc casting , and comboing GCS, and tentacles. Any more advice is truly appreciated.

[slarden]

Slarden thank you so much for your response. I was looking at your updated builds earlier. I was thinking about attempting to adapt your Bladeforged build to Deep Gnome. I love the idea of dc casting , and comboing GCS, and tentacles. Any more advice is truly appreciated.

The bladeforged build was an experiment to see if I could self-heal in magister with reconstruct which worked out well. For Deep gnome I would definitely play in exalted angel because of the extra self-healing. The issue with cocoon is more the 12 second cooldown than anything else.

Other than that I think everything should work the same with deep gnome.

[lord_of_rage]

The bladeforged build was an experiment to see if I could self-heal in magister with reconstruct which worked out well. For Deep gnome I would definitely play in exalted angel because of the extra self-healing. The issue with cocoon is more the 12 second cooldown than anything else.

Other than that I think everything should work the same with deep gnome.

Would your ES build work? Would you go Carceri Storm, over Fiend seeing as I am going to use DG for these lives?

[slarden]

Would your ES build work? Would you go Carceri Storm, over Fiend seeing as I am going to use DG for these lives?

I personally prefer carceri storm over fiend for a non-tiefling because absolute zero works on more enemies than hurl and it effectively does the same thing - permanently neutralizes the enemy.

the big thing with tiefling/fiend is the ability to overcome fire immunity more than even the crits.

Soul Eater/Tainted Scholar is stronger for levels 15-20. Soul Eater/Tainted Scholar is stronger for levels 21-29 and your spell DCs should be fine. At level 30 it depends on many things- difficulty, who you run with, gear, etc.

I think you can use the bladeforged build as a template but go in exalted Angel instead of Magister. Your DCs will be fine until you hit sharn and feywild. At that point it's a learning curve to know which enemies to target with various spells because of high saves. As a general rule hit melees and ranged with devour the soul/hurl/absolute zero and casters/artificers with finger. Even if your DC is quite a bit lower than I show in the build it will still work.

The 1-2 punch of tentacles + greater color spray will work well in all content at all level ranges. In very few cases web is better than tentacles so if tentacles isn't working try web instead. Mass hold is also there if you need a longer duration.