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Darkrok
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Good Warlock Builds for Heroic Only?
Jul 30th, 2015 at 1:23pm
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Just came back to the game after 18 months or so off and looking to IR my caster into Warlock to run 3 heroic past lives. Not interested in how well it will work at epic - just looking for the most enjoyable build going from 1-18.

Character in question has 3 pl's for wizard/sorc/fvs/druid and will have 1 pl in cleric and an iconic in ML. Never had crazy good gear and this character isn't my top as far as tomes (have +3's across the board, a +4 somewhere, and a +5 in wisdom). I've got con-opp greensteel goggles, a greensteel sp/cha wrist item, torc, and then assorted stuff including some nice short swords and a ton of btc casting gear. Also have Marilith Chain that I've never worn. Smiley

Given the PL's and the fact this is for heroic only does it make more sense to stay pure or splash something (maybe grab evasion?). I messed around a bit with a first-life pure Warlock and leveled from 7-9 with my kids...it was fun (a bit squishy but that's first lifers), but fun. I'd really prefer not to water things down too much as I really do enjoy the pew pew pew nature of warlocks as well as the up-front nature of the cone blast shape, but if a splash would be more effective/fun for the trips to 20 I'm willing to give it a go.

Lastly I did look at ES quite a bit due to my 3 druid past lives and the fact that I've really enjoyed running quests on autopilot once I went Radiant Servant on my 18 cleric/2 fvs morninglord and just played nanny to the 2 owlbears, panther, and the 23 ranger hire. Tossing ES's hire bonuses together with 3 druid past lives and Augment Summoning makes for some nasty hires and highly usable summons. My big hesitations are that ES looks a bit weak during the early leveling and that the best way to do it (Dwarf with throw your weight around melee'ing) doesn't fit well with my gear or my past lives either one.

So what makes the most sense? Just pure to 18 warlock? Pick up evasion from rogue or monk? Any other interesting builds that could make use of the abilities/gear I listed? And if I do go with a mainly casting character is it worth bothering with SF/GSF: Evocation in addition to the 3 Sorc Past Lives and Active Wizard Past Life I'd be taking? I'm thinking that might be overkill and the feats could be better used to fit in Max/Emp/Heighten, maybe Quicken, maybe Augment Summoning, and then either SF/GSF in Enchanting or Necro once they become useful.
  
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Rubbinns
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Re: Good Warlock Builds for Heroic Only?
Reply #1 - Jul 30th, 2015 at 2:44pm
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You could do all types of warlocks in heroics. Necro spec'd or enchant. Melee hybrid with bursts and auras. You cannot build warlcok wrong. ES tree and TS for cores = winning. If necro spec'd then use SE tree. No matter what you build, it is 2 stronk.
  

Mockduck wrote on Aug 30th, 2010 at 2:20pm:
I don't think naming names would be a good thing for me to do, but I'd pretty much add anyone who's a know-it-all dick on the list.� Even if they are sometimes intelligent with their opinions, the way they state them in long, "i'm a lawyer at trial"-type posts makes me want to punch them in the face.� They act like whiney babies with god complexes and then freak out if someone so much as breathes criticism in their direction.
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Darkrok
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Re: Good Warlock Builds for Heroic Only?
Reply #2 - Jul 30th, 2015 at 6:01pm
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I've seen a few people running the shield feats...seems like there could be some synergy there shield block/bashing while letting the aura/blasts/bursts kill everything. Everyone that went melee hybrid seemed to be disappointed with the melee damage anyway (at least compared to the blast/burst) and any ways of really getting a decent melee damage stat either lock me into going to 28 (30) with PDK or into spending a ton of AP with Dwarf. Do the shield feats sound worthwhile or would the added survivability be too little to warrant the 2 or 3 feats spent on it?
« Last Edit: Jul 30th, 2015 at 6:01pm by Darkrok »  
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Re: Good Warlock Builds for Heroic Only?
Reply #3 - Jul 30th, 2015 at 6:21pm
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Darkrok wrote on Jul 30th, 2015 at 6:01pm:
Do the shield feats sound worthwhile or would the added survivability be too little to warrant the 2 or 3 feats spent on it?

for heroic it is a waste. you will have displace anyway.
  

Mockduck wrote on Aug 30th, 2010 at 2:20pm:
I don't think naming names would be a good thing for me to do, but I'd pretty much add anyone who's a know-it-all dick on the list.� Even if they are sometimes intelligent with their opinions, the way they state them in long, "i'm a lawyer at trial"-type posts makes me want to punch them in the face.� They act like whiney babies with god complexes and then freak out if someone so much as breathes criticism in their direction.
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Re: Good Warlock Builds for Heroic Only?
Reply #4 - Jul 30th, 2015 at 8:53pm
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The burst/blast from ES were tuned down but still benefit from metamagics. Keep spell power force/pact and spell crit to your level when you can and you'll have a good time whichever type you play. Last life I went ES-42  SE to cone and everything else in TS (up to pen blast/bewitching/pact boost and 4 cores).
« Last Edit: Jul 30th, 2015 at 8:58pm by Coffeetime »  
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Re: Good Warlock Builds for Heroic Only?
Reply #5 - Jul 31st, 2015 at 10:38am
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Sounds good. So the short version of this would be:
1) There's really no wrong way to build a Warlock...it may not be OP for power gamers but it certainly makes things easy.
2) Max/Emp are the only 100% necessary feats. Beyond that build whatever sounds fun but pure has the advantage of getting the goodies faster and getting to play with the level 18 stuff pre-20.
3) The only thing that really matters for gear is spell power/spell crit for the applicable spell types.
4) Anything you do other than burst/blast from ES or shape attacks from your main line will likely pale in comparison to the damage output from those.

Still have a couple levels to finish up to IR to a lock but that's a lot to think about that sounds like it matters very little. All the choices and none of them wrong...have to try as many as I can in those 3 lives. Smiley

Thanks for the input everyone!
« Last Edit: Jul 31st, 2015 at 10:51am by Darkrok »  
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Re: Good Warlock Builds for Heroic Only?
Reply #6 - Jul 31st, 2015 at 2:47pm
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One thought I had while looking at this. I know that the ES blasts share a CD with Cleave/GCleave. Has anyone checked to see if for epic levels they would also reset the cooldowns on Lay Waste/Momentum Swing, or is it just the CD that they share and not the effect of using Cleave/GCleave? Could see some value to melee damage at epics if you could twist Lay Waste/Momentum Swing and use your blasts to reset CD's.
  
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Re: Good Warlock Builds for Heroic Only?
Reply #7 - Jul 31st, 2015 at 2:55pm
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Darkrok wrote on Jul 31st, 2015 at 2:47pm:
One thought I had while looking at this. I know that the ES blasts share a CD with Cleave/GCleave. Has anyone checked to see if for epic levels they would also reset the cooldowns on Lay Waste/Momentum Swing, or is it just the CD that they share and not the effect of using Cleave/GCleave? Could see some value to melee damage at epics if you could twist Lay Waste/Momentum Swing and use your blasts to reset CD's.


All I know is: The Aura and the Cleaves work in Tree Form.
  

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Re: Good Warlock Builds for Heroic Only?
Reply #8 - Jul 31st, 2015 at 6:22pm
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Do they ever, it's so op it's oop.
  
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Re: Good Warlock Builds for Heroic Only?
Reply #9 - Aug 19th, 2015 at 1:34am
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Darkrok wrote on Jul 31st, 2015 at 10:38am:
Sounds good. So the short version of this would be:
1) There's really no wrong way to build a Warlock...it may not be OP for power gamers but it certainly makes things easy.
2) Max/Emp are the only 100% necessary feats. Beyond that build whatever sounds fun but pure has the advantage of getting the goodies faster and getting to play with the level 18 stuff pre-20.
3) The only thing that really matters for gear is spell power/spell crit for the applicable spell types.
4) Anything you do other than burst/blast from ES or shape attacks from your main line will likely pale in comparison to the damage output from those.

Still have a couple levels to finish up to IR to a lock but that's a lot to think about that sounds like it matters very little. All the choices and none of them wrong...have to try as many as I can in those 3 lives. Smiley

Thanks for the input everyone!



As someone who has played around with 3 different builds in heroics with warlock and warlock/paladin, what has been said is true. Just about any warlock build is a good build. However I will say that Warlock 18 is a must for using the Aura due to the 2 sec pulsing, and if you go 18 it's hard not to get the full 20. The ES capstone is incredibly good and taking 2 paladin for the saves might be nice, but you're losing 20% hps and some good spellpower for little in return. Now if you could get the 2 sec aura before 18, then 3 splash of Pally for the Sacred Defender PRR, MRR and HP boosts would be nice... Honestly I feel they did a good job on warlock since it's such a balanced(at least within itself) class that any type of build can work, some just better than others and most classes don't have capstones that are "must haves".

My recommendation is to focus mostly on ES whether you do aura or not and be sure to grab utterdark blast. Changing your core force damage to light synergizes well with all the ES light damage. If you want to pew-pew then go chain and grab up to core 4 in TS for the crit damage along with all the pact damage boosts. It doesn't hurt to grab a little from the SE tree for single target damage.

IMHO Aura is the stronger build, even if you don't plan to do melee. Taking the aura means you're picking up a lot of the PRR/MRR and bonus hps from that enhancement line which makes you a lot more survivable. With the boosts, you have nearly the same PRR/MRR in medium armor as you would in heavy(you don't get the boosts while wearing heavy). With all the hp boosts and temp hp from shining through, you likely won't even need much(any?) healing in the later levels it's that good.

Just pop on the aura, do the AoE bursts(empower+maximize+quicken for free) and then cast SLA's and spells in between the cleave cooldowns. For heroic play, I'd even recommend putting most points into con because most things don't save often on your pact damage and even if they do, most of your damage will come from the force/light damage side which can't be resisted. The con will make you un-killable even if you lose a slight bit of pact damage due to resists(pick up spell focus evo and some evo DC gear and it won't be an issue).

In short, you can't go wrong with anything but there are a few things that can be brokenly good.
  
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Re: Good Warlock Builds for Heroic Only?
Reply #10 - Aug 19th, 2015 at 7:44am
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20 Warlock, just blast shit. Easy.

ES bursts are OP, and in heroics you can pretty much have infinite temp HP also.

Went T5 in ES last life with all other points in TS to boost/modify eldritch blast damage.

Took 1 arti this life for traps.
  
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