Melee or Caster Warlock for DPS?

[Cor_Dath'a]

Hi, Everyone, I'm looking for a new character to play. I've been playing for a while now, and Warlock interests me. However, from what I've read, there seems to be a wide range of opinions as to a good Warlock build. I'm looking for a high dps Warlock build, melee or caster. I'm a casual player. I'm usually logged in when there are few chances for good groups, so I solo a lot. I've played mostly melee characters in the past. I'm open to the idea of playing a caster if I can get a good build with high dps. I've seen a couple of caster Warlock builds, but there's not a lot of explanation of the owner's build philosophy. It seems that they assume that the reader knows every thing to know about build theory. But, I'd like to know why certain feats, spells, enhancements and such are chosen for specific reasons. I believe that this helps me learn the mechanics of the game. Thanks for your help.

[slarden]

Arcane warriors are getting a big buff in U51. That might be the time to experiment with this. In general I think wizard, alchemist and artificer are better suited for arcane warrior builds due to the bonus feats.

As of right now casters have weaker dps than martial builds and the gap is probably larger than it's ever been. They make up for that partially by having solid aoe dps with a longer range than cleaves + more cc options, but in general since casters have much weaker dps they require alot more care in how they are played. It's not for everyone.

Warlock doesn't have much support for martial dps - no crit boosts for example. You can go deep into inquisitive or vistani to get crit boosts but neither of those will be top tier. Inquisitive will be behind top ranged builds. Vistani thrower will be behind ranger/bard splashes as it's missing a crit range and deepwood stalker goodness. Vistani melee is missing crit range/multiplier bonuses from the assassin tree. A bow build with aoe dps with the upcoming horizon walker might be possible if they buff the tree. As of now it's behind deepwood stalker. Warlocks are a bit feat starved to fit in casting + ranged feats.

The top dps warlock build is probably fey caster warlock in fatesinger with vivace. It suffers a bit from going against a reflex save so the extent you can't overcome enemy saves it will dent your dps a bit and of course enemies with evasion will avoid all damage when making their save. Self-healing in fatesinger is horrible unless you go enlightened spirit, but then you lose the soul eater debuffs. Going bladeforged is an option if you are willing to use a +1 heart to remove the paladin level.

Using LGS debuffers can help with your dps. Ash is best if you are soloing. Ooze is good if you will have some melees along or someone else has ash. When soloing nothing in your off-hand will match the dps gains from ash. You can swap that with LGS Salt for mobs which slows enemies 95%.

If you have questions on specific builds I would post those directly in the build threads.

[Cor_Dath'a]

Hi, slarden, thanks for the feedback. You've given me some place to start. I read through the available U51 notes so far, but without much knowledge of casters, I was a bit lost. I read your article about your bladeforged caster build. I like the information about how to play such a character. I'm going to study it a bit further when I start formulating a build of my own. I like the bladeforged because of it's racial abilities and self-healing SLA. I'm off to do more research.

[slarden]

Hi, slarden, thanks for the feedback. You've given me some place to start. I read through the available U51 notes so far, but without much knowledge of casters, I was a bit lost. I read your article about your bladeforged caster build. I like the information about how to play such a character. I'm going to study it a bit further when I start formulating a build of my own. I like the bladeforged because of it's racial abilities and self-healing SLA. I'm off to do more research.

Prior to U51 DC was hard to come by in epic destinies outside of magister and exalted angel + maxing out stat bonus. With U51 they are giving you the equivalent of magister with maxed out stats in every caster and hybrid trees.

What this means is that a caster with martial dps in a hybrid tree will be able to get solid dcs while focusing heavily on martial dps. For example Shiradi will still be great for ranged, but now if you are a wizard archer with some DC gear you will be able to go 41 pts in the new archer tree + shiradi and have good enough dcs to land mass hold, dancing sphere, etc. It might require some gear swaps to optimize for different situations, but it was previously a very weak build at end game with DCs too low to be effective and/or DPS too weak. The trade-offs between DC and DPS will be much less with U51.

It will take alot of testing to see where these builds stack up, but I see high potential since sub-optimal martial dps still outpaces maxed out casting dps.