Looking for warlock illusionist build

[kmoustakas]

I have built a second bard and soon my old bard is going to tr. I have all the cha gear so I thought warlock would be the natural progression choice. Only, I don't know anything about warlocks in DDO (I have been playing warlocks for years in 5e). I have also never played a pure caster other than cleric in DDO. I am looking at heroic mostly 1-20 and pure warlock.

Is there a good 'melee' warlock build, possibly with feydark illusionist involvement? Is any pact adding illusion instakill spells to the table?

Thank you for your time

[KoobTheProud]

Several years ago I tried PDK melee Warlock, ES and CHA to hit and damage and all of that. It was a failure mainly because the DPS was lower with the Greatsword than what I got out of the AE blasts alongside other spells. This meant that using the Greatsword instead of the usual 1hand whatever plus the Skyvault shield was just a straight up fail in terms of power.

Since then we have gotten the 2HF improvements and Feydark Illusionist to let you make your Greatsword into a shadowblade. I'm still guessing that you're just better off with the blasts and the 1hander and Skyvault however it is probably a closer call at this point. The feats you take to make your AE blasts better also make other things you do better. The feats you would take to make 2HF better would do only that.

The other thing of course is that the melee Warlock tree, which is Enlightened Spirit, it the weakest of the 3 primary trees. Good for survival but significantly lower DPS than a true caster Warlock in TS/SE.

[kmoustakas]

Several years ago I tried PDK melee Warlock, ES and CHA to hit and damage and all of that. It was a failure mainly because the DPS was lower with the Greatsword than what I got out of the AE blasts alongside other spells. This meant that using the Greatsword instead of the usual 1hand whatever plus the Skyvault shield was just a straight up fail in terms of power.

Since then we have gotten the 2HF improvements and Feydark Illusionist to let you make your Greatsword into a shadowblade. I'm still guessing that you're just better off with the blasts and the 1hander and Skyvault however it is probably a closer call at this point. The feats you take to make your AE blasts better also make other things you do better. The feats you would take to make 2HF better would do only that.

The other thing of course is that the melee Warlock tree, which is Enlightened Spirit, it the weakest of the 3 primary trees. Good for survival but significantly lower DPS than a true caster Warlock in TS/SE.

I see what you're saying about feats, makes a lot of sense

[slarden]

If you want to go illusionist you should go acid for pact which gives you pk and spend at least 11 points in feydark illusionist for greater color spray which has no spell pen check.

Get your deep gnome lifes first because that will give you +3. Twist dracronic presence in for +3 more to your pk. You get finger of death in your spellbook + finger of death in tier 5 of soul eater + wail of the banshee in your spellbook at higher levels. This makes for a compelling reason to go necro for heroic levels. Conjuration is also compelling for tentacles.

Tentacles + greater color spray will handle all your cc needs for heroic leveling.

[kmoustakas]

If you want to go illusionist you should go acid for pact which gives you pk and spend at least 11 points in feydark illusionist for greater color spray which has no spell pen check.

Get your deep gnome lifes first because that will give you +3. Twist dracronic presence in for +3 more to your pk. You get finger of death in your spellbook + finger of death in tier 5 of soul eater + wail of the banshee in your spellbook at higher levels. This makes for a compelling reason to go necro for heroic levels. Conjuration is also compelling for tentacles.

Tentacles + greater color spray will handle all your cc needs for heroic leveling.

That sounds great! Basically though you need illusion+conjuration+necromancy? Spell focus it is haha.

[Enderoc]

Drow...4 Death Domain Cleric, 16 warlock Abyssal Pact (must be neutral)
Feydark, Enlightened Spirit, warpriest/dark divine Disciple...two weapon feats, illusion, greater illusion
Simplified....Max Heal and Spellcraft do light and negative damage, expert at shadowblades as favored weapon, undead form with self healing capability both positive and negative...
Bad thing about shadow blades though...they are not casting implements keep that in mind. They are there for constructs or undead primarily (or when spellcasting isn't enough)...using blasts for everything else...even though they get phatasmal killer on vorpel so not at all useless against the living. The light damage from aura will help vs undead or when swarmed the negative energy will affect the living. You could put a short-sword with spellpower in your off hand and juggle equipment.

[slarden]

That sounds great! Basically though you need illusion+conjuration+necromancy? Spell focus it is haha.

If you don't plan to advance to epic levels you don't need any spell focus feats. Spell focus feats are only needed as prereqs for epic destinies.

I usually use a cannith crafted hat with generic spell focus mastery and max out charisma - your dcs will work fine for heroics with just that. I usually take my trs all the way to 30, but when I do stop at 20 I never bother with spell focus feats - past life wizard is much better. Of course completionist if you have it. +1 to one school is not impactful enough for a feat slot.

Enlightened Spirit plays like a melee and/or works well in conjunction with melee. I think tentacles + greater color spray will work great even if you spec primarily for melee as long as you have spell focus mastery slotted + max charisma.

[Enderoc]

If you don't plan to advance to epic levels you don't need any spell focus feats. Spell focus feats are only needed as prereqs for epic destinies.

I usually use a cannith crafted hat with generic spell focus mastery and max out charisma - your dcs will work fine for heroics with just that. I usually take my trs all the way to 30, but when I do stop at 20 I never bother with spell focus feats - past life wizard is much better. Of course completionist if you have it. +1 to one school is not impactful enough for a feat slot.

Enlightened Spirit plays like a melee and/or works well in conjunction with melee. I think tentacles + greater color spray will work great even if you spec primarily for melee as long as you have spell focus mastery slotted + max charisma.

Spell focus is also a way to make up for lost DC from multi classing or if you went lower on your casting stat to improve another

[kmoustakas]

Drow...4 Death Domain Cleric, 16 warlock Abyssal Pact (must be neutral)
Feydark, Enlightened Spirit, warpriest/dark divine Disciple...two weapon feats, illusion, greater illusion
Simplified....Max Heal and Spellcraft do light and negative damage, expert at shadowblades as favored weapon, undead form with self healing capability both positive and negative...
Bad thing about shadow blades though...they are not casting implements keep that in mind. They are there for constructs or undead primarily (or when spellcasting isn't enough)...using blasts for everything else...even though they get phatasmal killer on vorpel so not at all useless against the living. The light damage from aura will help vs undead or when swarmed the negative energy will affect the living. You could put a short-sword with spellpower in your off hand and juggle equipment.

I'd rather not multiclass but that sounds very interesting! Shadowblades do count as shortswords after all.

I keep getting thoughts that maybe sorcerer or drow favoured soul might be better after all but I really wanna try warlocks lol, I've never played one

[unbongwah]

This is as much a question as a suggestion: is anyone running a Vistani / Feydark warlock? I was thinking Enlightened Spirit 41 / Vistani Knife Fighter 24 / Feydark 11 / Tainted Scholar 4 gets you:

• ES capstone + tier-5s (Spirit Blast, Shining Through, etc.)
• VKF One with Blades (+1 crit range & multiplier) + Single/Double Daggers + 10% doublestrike
• FI CHA to-hit & damage, Shadowblades imbue, Greater Color Spray SLA
• TS Feigned Health

Not a high-DPS toon compared to a regular warlock caster, but something with good survivability and limited CC potential. Pull mob, hit with Color Spray, fire off two ES bursts, melee the survivors - rinse, repeat.

[slarden]

This is as much a question as a suggestion: is anyone running a Vistani / Feydark warlock? I was thinking Enlightened Spirit 41 / Vistani Knife Fighter 24 / Feydark 11 / Tainted Scholar 4 gets you:

• ES capstone + tier-5s (Spirit Blast, Shining Through, etc.)
• VKF One with Blades (+1 crit range & multiplier) + Single/Double Daggers + 10% doublestrike
• FI CHA to-hit & damage, Shadowblades imbue, Greater Color Spray SLA
• TS Feigned Health

Not a high-DPS toon compared to a regular warlock caster, but something with good survivability and limited CC potential. Pull mob, hit with Color Spray, fire off two ES bursts, melee the survivors - rinse, repeat.

I have not, but U51 should make you want to un-retire as a build engineer as arcane and divine warrior type builds in general are getting a massive boost with the hybrid ED trees and the homogenization of DCs. Using marital DPS (albeit below top-tier but still superior to casting dps) with top-tier DCs will be possible.