Build advice!

[Bagel99]

Hello all im looking to run a character with enough warlock to get the imbue toggle so i can do my melee things and double dip on my dice. I would like some self healing, no need for trapping and would like to be 2hf if possible. If anyone can suggest a build or come up with one id love to hear what you think! I have a few ideas of my own but would love outside perspective on getting the most out of a build. Doesn't have to be min max but would like something that can handle some r1 raiding and be useful for solo farming etc. I do NOT want to really be caster based though eldritch bursts are fine by me and would really like to try to fit in +1/+1 crit range/multi.

Thanks for the help! oh and no dagger centric build if possible.

[Kakow]

Certainly not the most bestest minmax zergy build, but I thought I'd share my 3rd of 3 dark hunter lives I'm coming off of now after 20 levels.
Some of the things you wanted fit into this build, some not, but it's a base maybe from which you can mold to fit what you want.

One thing I wanted in this life was full Use Magic Device from level 1 on. Dark Hunters get a bonus to UMD in their tree, but sadly for some reason do not actually have it as a class skill. I overcame this deficiency by going lvl 1 as warlock (vanilla, the new warlock archetype may or may not add a tiny bit to this approach). I also am in love with Wand & Scroll Mastery 3/3 (WSM) for the extra 75% power to your wands of cure X wounds, and scrolls of Heal. NOT choosing Wand/Scroll Mastery somehow results in having to use triple the amount of scrolls or wand charges to arrive at the same result. I'm not a math wizard, but I can say that UMD healing is amazing with WSM, but just okay without it.

Dark Hunters get full trapping skills also, so there is no trap I blew up, but many times the current public grouping experience on Orien has been "look at me how fast I can run mommy!", so my trapping experience often went unrewarding and unwelcome/unacknowledged. However, since both Search and Disable are both Intelligence-based, I had tons of points for skill investments, and used the Harper Agent tree for INT to hit/dmg. I didn't take Know the Angles cuz without a yellow stickie on my eyeglass lens, I forget to press KTA every two minutes for full benefit, but it's there if you want (I spent the points in the more Hit Points enhancement instead).

One thing to note, yes rangers (dark hunters too) get TWF feat line for free, but you are NOT required to use that if you prefer THF. Just drop whichever of my feats for the THF line you want. You'll find that if you play it like me, you have zero points to invest in Tempest anyway so you're not really losing much... strikethrough is in my opinion more valuable for most heroic content, then you can swap to TWF for champs/reapers/bosses if needed.

Dark Hunter 3 of 3
12/6/2 Dark Hunter Ranger/Blightcaster Druid/Vanilla Warlock
True Neutral Human


Level Order

1. Warlock 6. Druid 11. Ranger 16. Ranger
2. Warlock 7. Druid 12. Ranger 17. Ranger
3. Druid 8. Druid 13. Ranger 18. Ranger
4. Druid 9. Druid 14. Ranger 19. Ranger
5. Ranger 10. Ranger 15. Ranger 20. Ranger


Stats
36pt Tome Level Up
---- ---- --------
Strength 11 +7 4: INT
Dexterity 13 +7 8: INT
Constitution 12 +7 12: INT
Intelligence 16 +7 16: INT
Wisdom 16 +7 20: INT
Charisma 12 +7


Skills
W W D D R D D D D R R R R R R R R R R R
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
------------------------------------------------------------
UMD 4 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 23
------------------------------------------------------------
4 1 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2
Max 24 7 9 10 12 10 10 11 11 13 13 14 14 14 14 15 15 15 15 16


Feats
1 : Dodge
1 Human : Mobility
3 : Extend Spell
6 : Whirlwind Attack
9 : Maximize Spell
12 : Improved Critical: Slashing
15 : Greater Two Weapon Fighting (taken early cuz why wait?)
18 : Insightful Reflexes

1 Warlock: Pact: Great Old One

[Kakow]

Why druid? Cuz I wanted the Thorn Imbue toggle instead of the Bleed the Weak in Dark Hunter. You CAN (and should) get at least the 3 extra bonus imbue dice in the left column in Dark Hunter though as that feeds any imbue toggle, not just the Bleed one (which I found less useful as in heroics, melee power is harder to gain than force spellpower which feeds the Thorn Imbue).

Also, I was honestly curious about Blightcaster. I played early game as a wolf, but having to swap out of animal form to use UMD sucked, so I stopped as soon as I gained Thorn Kin form, which functions fine as a warrior form. I also grabbed the improved +1 shillelagh core from Season's Herald to make quarterstaff use a solid alternative when fighting skeletons that laughed at my dual rapiers' and Thorn Imbue piercing damage.

Blightcaster cores has a thing called Death Eater, which stacks temp HP on you when you kill something. It stacks up to 3 times and is refreshed fully at each kill. It stacks separately and in addition to the Feigned Health I often got from healing via UMD, or casting a cheap Feather Fall on myself or friends.

For warlock tree, I used the Aura toggle from Enlightened Spirit for a tiny bit of extra AoE damage early on, but turned if off when I got high enough to stealth attack dark hunter's assassinate attack. The Aura breaks stealth. I recall it not doing so before, but I guess it does now (and it should imo.. it is an attack after all). Also used Tainted Scholar tree for the Wand/Scroll Mastery and for the Feigned Health thing.

I'm certain someone will come on here and tell you my suggestions are garbage and I should go drink bleach for even offering advice, but this was just a thought starter for you. Maybe you'll not do any of what I say, but hey, here's something to get you going!

[misterski]

Why druid? Cuz I wanted the Thorn Imbue toggle instead of the Bleed the Weak in Dark Hunter. You CAN (and should) get at least the 3 extra bonus imbue dice in the left column in Dark Hunter though as that feeds any imbue toggle, not just the Bleed one (which I found less useful as in heroics, melee power is harder to gain than force spellpower which feeds the Thorn Imbue).

Also, I was honestly curious about Blightcaster. I played early game as a wolf, but having to swap out of animal form to use UMD sucked, so I stopped as soon as I gained Thorn Kin form, which functions fine as a warrior form. I also grabbed the improved +1 shillelagh core from Season's Herald to make quarterstaff use a solid alternative when fighting skeletons that laughed at my dual rapiers' and Thorn Imbue piercing damage.

Blightcaster cores has a thing called Death Eater, which stacks temp HP on you when you kill something. It stacks up to 3 times and is refreshed fully at each kill. It stacks separately and in addition to the Feigned Health I often got from healing via UMD, or casting a cheap Feather Fall on myself or friends.

For warlock tree, I used the Aura toggle from Enlightened Spirit for a tiny bit of extra AoE damage early on, but turned if off when I got high enough to stealth attack dark hunter's assassinate attack. The Aura breaks stealth. I recall it not doing so before, but I guess it does now (and it should imo.. it is an attack after all). Also used Tainted Scholar tree for the Wand/Scroll Mastery and for the Feigned Health thing.

I'm certain someone will come on here and tell you my suggestions are garbage and I should go drink bleach for even offering advice, but this was just a thought starter for you. Maybe you'll not do any of what I say, but hey, here's something to get you going!

Your build advice is all well and good but it doesn't really help the OP. He said he wants enough warlock levels to get the imbue from ES and 2 levels doesn't cut it.

[magaiti]

warlock 12 barb 8

12 warlock for decent Aura ticks (otherwise there isn't much of a double-dipping, right?)
8 barb for IUD

35 AP into Frenzy Berserker for T5
some AP into ES for aura/imbues.
the rest - whatever.

Don't forget to take the Arcane Warrior destiny feat.