question about warlocks

[harmlesslarry]

So I want a CC caster and Ive decided to go with warlock. I cant take the leveling with wiz, and they seem sort of weak. I have my past lives for the spell pen, so Im deciding to go with an acid dragonborn warlock for insta kills and cc so I can farm reaper. My question is, does maximize and empower aid my eldritch blasts? And also, should I take evocation feats, do they aid blasts? Thanks

[Maelodic]

So I want a CC caster and Ive decided to go with warlock. I cant take the leveling with wiz, and they seem sort of weak. I have my past lives for the spell pen, so Im deciding to go with an acid dragonborn warlock for insta kills and cc so I can farm reaper. My question is, does maximize and empower aid my eldritch blasts? And also, should I take evocation feats, do they aid blasts? Thanks

The pact damage is dependent on evocation DCs, the Force (or physical/evil if you have the modifiers) damage does not have a save.
Maximize and Empower don't increase the damage of your blasts, however they do increase the damage of all of the SLAs within the Warlock trees including:
Both Spirit Bursts in Enlightened Spirit
Stunning Blast and Eldritch Ball in Tainted Scholar
Consume, Stricken, Steal Life Force, Burning Blood, and Eldritch Wave in Soul Eater

If you want to go CC, I'd heavily recommend Fey with a focus on enchanting. Otto's Sphere of Dancing, Mass Hold, Mass Charm - these are all enchantment spells. The biggest downside to Fey is that if you miss your evocation save on some mobs when you're blasting, they won't take damage because they have evasion, rather than taking half damage. It also can be a bummer that Sonic spellpower is based on Perform rather than Spellcraft as Perform isn't a warlock class skill, so you're missing out on an extra ~12 SP which isn't a huge deal but it bugs me.

I like to focus on Conjuration as Evards and Web are conjuration based- however I feel as though the enchant focus is more consistent as far as CC goes. Another good option is getting illusion DCs and using Color Spray a bunch - then you can also use Phantasmal Killer from the Great Old One Pact and have a bit easier time with it. Up to you- despite the limited spell pool, Warlock is pretty versatile. I haven't felt a need for extra CC with just Color Spray and Evards, but there's a lot of places where Color Spray doesn't work, and Evards doesn't last particularly long on Reaper mode.

If this is your first life and you want to take it through epics/contribute on reaper in epics I'd recommend this build here: https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthrea...nd-DPS-Warlock
It's unlikely that you'll get your DCs up high enough to use meaningful DC based saves or insta-kills without all the proper gear, so running that build is a great way to breeze through your first life and still have the option of being pretty useful in epics.

[Seph1roth5]

Did wizard seem weak as in not enough damage or as in too squishy? If you want awesome CC wiz is definitely the way to go. Warlocks are super surviveable (if you go aura style), but they're not going to be crazy strong. I made a warlock for easy farming stuff, but my wiz is who I hop on when I want to kick ass lol.

I'd still recommend giving wiz another try, if you go pale master with skeleton "meat" shield you can be pretty tough to kill. Self heals, immunities, and displacement go a long way.

[Maelodic]

Did wizard seem weak as in not enough damage or as in too squishy? If you want awesome CC wiz is definitely the way to go. Warlocks are super surviveable (if you go aura style), but they're not going to be crazy strong. I made a warlock for easy farming stuff, but my wiz is who I hop on when I want to kick ass lol.

I'd still recommend giving wiz another try, if you go pale master with skeleton "meat" shield you can be pretty tough to kill. Self heals, immunities, and displacement go a long way.

Wizards feel fantastic if you can get your DCs up and have the gear to support it. Warlocks always feel pretty good, regardless of DCs. If you need to farm gear out and still want to participate in higher difficulties in groups, Warlocks are a good place to start.

Wizards are fun and PMs tend to be immortal but over time if you don't have gear planned out for the entirety of your life and your DCs start dropping, because they're really reliant on having a good DC vs Fort, which is the hardest save to overcome, they start feeling pretty terrible.