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vageta31
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Warlock Aura Build questions.
Aug 13th, 2015 at 6:31pm
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I'm fairly new to DDO, about a month playtime, and after trying a handful of different classes(paladin, barb, sorc, warlock) I've really fell in the love with the warlock. Regardless of how "op" or "not really op" they are, I'm having a blast playing them. That said I've mostly been playing the pewpew style, using the bursts and spells like evard's, disco ball, etc.. I have a GOO Drow pure warlock 20 and a Fey Bladeforged lock/pali 18/2(17/3).

I really want to mess around the a more aura focused build but I'm having trouble deciding how to go about it. From what I've gathered and experimented with there are 3 basic ways to play an aura build. 1. Supplement your aura damage with melee while bursting. 2. Focus on a burst/spell rotation(easier in Epic it seems). 3. Grab heavy armor and a shield and just block while things pile up on you and burst them down as they refresh. I guess my questions revolve around how viable these builds/tactics are in epic and what sort of multiclass can benefit them without losing too much warlock.

Apparently evasion tanks used to be the thing, but now PRR/MRR and heavy armor is king. Using some ASF enhancements and gear it seems doable to reduce it to 5% or even 0%, but the ES tree gives bonuses to MRR based on light and heavy armor, giving nothing to heavy armor. I messed around with 3 levels of paladin using sacred defender to maximize my PRR/MRR but after doing some excel numbers it didn't really seem that much more compared to all that I was losing in lock.

So I guess what I'm getting at from someone with experience, is how would you go about this build. So far I have paladin in mind for the sacred defender, heavy armor prof, saves boost but also considering a bardlock. Apparently swashbuckler is a good build, and since cha synergizes between lock and bard, it seems it could work.

If I did something like Bard 3/Warlock 17 would that be enough of the swashbuckler enhancements to make a difference over pure Warlock? You get something like 13% dodge with minimal investment(buckler in swash stance), plus a bunch of "when the attack misses you xxx". The idea is to stand in them middle of mobs with the aura going, cycling bursts, meleeing in between while mobs that fail their save trip and/or take extra scaling sonic damage. My "thoughts"(without much to back them up) are that a high dodge chance and my displacement SLA combined with shining through would keep me fairly tanky even in light armor. If I'm taking a beating I can switch to active block and bursting.

Does this sound viable? I'd lose my 18 warlock 2 sec aura core ability, meaning it'd only pulse every 3 secs. I'm not sure if the benefits of the Swashbuckler abilities and probably mediocre damage would make up for the lost levels. In theory, having a high dodge bonus combined with displacement SLA and shining through could make me somewhat survivable. To take it further, since I'm losing out on the 18 core warlock ability, I could theoretically lose a few more levels and pick up rogue 2 or monk 2 for evasion, etc..

Sorry for the long post, I'm still learning the mechanics so it's hard to really understand how helpful some of the damage mitigation abilities work in paper. Also I getting prepped for my first TR and want to play this build on my 2nd run.
  
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Darkrok
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Re: Warlock Aura Build questions.
Reply #1 - Aug 13th, 2015 at 8:23pm
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If you chose to supplement the aura damage with melee then Purple Dragon Knight is a solid choice. You gain easy charisma to damage and to-hit with short swords, long swords, and great swords.

Tier-3 Swashbucker from bard also works if you use Single-Weapon Fighting (which for Swashbucklers can also include a buckler in the off-hand).

Lastly, you could do the same thing with Dwarves, albeit much more expensively, but focusing on a Con build with Throw your Weight Around. Could be an interesting thing to try out thanks to the temporary hit point bonuses based on Con.

I'll let the people with more experience building Warlocks flesh things out and point out some viable builds but those are just some ways to max out melee based on either Cha or Con scores.
  
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Re: Warlock Aura Build questions.
Reply #2 - Aug 14th, 2015 at 2:04am
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If you want to melee and use Warlock as supplementary (but uber) damage, go Fey, use aura with sound, add light. Get all the boosts to your arcane blasts.. it also works on auto aura. Cherry on the top with TF Orb and Rapier. Get the stuff that boosts light, force and sound (Lantern Ring is awesome). Grab Mass Charm and you will be laughing your ass off sponsoring your own gladiator games while soloing EH/EE content.  Mobs? What mobs?  Cheesy
« Last Edit: Aug 14th, 2015 at 2:05am by ZooperDooper »  
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vageta31
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Re: Warlock Aura Build questions.
Reply #3 - Aug 14th, 2015 at 3:04am
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TF meaning? I'm sure it's a quest line, just not familiar off the top of my head. Also will mass hold even work in EE since I'm not going to have uber DC's?

It seems to me for what I'm looking for a PDK would probably fit the bill due to extremely cheap to get cha to hit/dmg, and even taking 1 or 2 levels of fighter for heavy armor prof and some bonus feats for SWF and maybe shield spec.
  
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Re: Warlock Aura Build questions.
Reply #4 - Aug 14th, 2015 at 6:13am
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Pretty sure Zoop is referring to Thunderforged. You can put crazy powerful enhancements on your weapons for casting purposes
  
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Re: Warlock Aura Build questions.
Reply #5 - Aug 14th, 2015 at 8:49am
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FYI, Light and Darkness shield is a large shield with only %5 ASF
  
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Re: Warlock Aura Build questions.
Reply #6 - Aug 14th, 2015 at 6:18pm
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palmer01 wrote on Aug 14th, 2015 at 8:49am:
FYI, Light and Darkness shield is a large shield with only %5 ASF


And if you're Neutral, you get Stability.. so there's that  Smiley
  
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Re: Warlock Aura Build questions.
Reply #7 - Aug 15th, 2015 at 1:09am
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vageta31 wrote on Aug 13th, 2015 at 6:31pm:
3 basic ways to play an aura build. 1. Supplement your aura damage with melee while bursting. 2. Focus on a burst/spell rotation(easier in Epic it seems). 3. Grab heavy armor and a shield and just block while things pile up on you and burst them down as they refresh.

For the combination of #2 and #3, you could try http://www.ddovault.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1439267556/6#6. Though I am not using spells, but Soul Eater SLAs. And I'm really good at debuffing bosses...
  
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Re: Warlock Aura Build questions.
Reply #8 - Aug 15th, 2015 at 2:42am
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You lose PRR with heavy armor over medium and ES bonuses, but can gain DR from shadow armor if that's your flavor.

Weapon + orb for melee. Im currently using light  TF orb and Dissolution bracer for spell power. TF crafted rapier crafted to what you want (i use 1st degree burns for vulnerability stacks which stacks fast with the attack speed)

forget shield. enough feats to slip in SWF line to get significant melee hits in between bursts to augment boss dmg

Cha is really not neccesary, but depends on what you like to play. I prefer using int based as it ups spell power, skill points and can be used as an attack/dmg stat.

I went human for extra feat, 18 con, 18 int 10 cha with levels ups in int.

Feat wise Heroic:
Completionist
Maximize, Empower, Quicken
SWF line
Imp crit pierce

Epic feats to flavor i went:
OC
2 Eldritch dmg bumps
Blinding Speed
Light SP


Edit - corrected miss-typed feat

« Last Edit: Aug 16th, 2015 at 2:42pm by Cripey »  

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Hordo wrote on Nov 21st, 2012 at 8:07am:
EDIT: BTW I love your post.  It reads as if English is your 3rd language behind gibberish and dipshit.


majmalphunktion wrote on Mar 20th, 2014 at 6:11pm:
what the fuck guys...

Jeesus fucking shit. This shit gets me called to the principals office.

Assholes.
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Darkrok
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Re: Warlock Aura Build questions.
Reply #9 - Aug 15th, 2015 at 11:15pm
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Cripey wrote on Aug 15th, 2015 at 2:42am:
Feat wise Heroic:
Completionist
Maximize, Extend, Quicken
SWF line
Imp crit pierce


Really like the build you posted...Same build for non-completionist would you replace Completionist w/ Empower?
  
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Cripey
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Re: Warlock Aura Build questions.
Reply #10 - Aug 16th, 2015 at 12:06am
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I misstyped, I dont have extend I have empower. Edited for correctness.

Id prolly slot insightful reflexes for saves or mental toughness for more crit chance if i wasnt completionist.
« Last Edit: Aug 16th, 2015 at 2:43pm by Cripey »  

Grands Superhero IRL

Or as they say in Ireland -
Derp derp derp derp. Yellow moons. Lassie.

Hordo wrote on Nov 21st, 2012 at 8:07am:
EDIT: BTW I love your post.  It reads as if English is your 3rd language behind gibberish and dipshit.


majmalphunktion wrote on Mar 20th, 2014 at 6:11pm:
what the fuck guys...

Jeesus fucking shit. This shit gets me called to the principals office.

Assholes.
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Cripey
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Re: Warlock Aura Build questions.
Reply #11 - Aug 16th, 2015 at 12:14am
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Cripey wrote on Aug 16th, 2015 at 12:06am:
I misstyped, I dont have extend I have empower.

Id prolly slot insightful reflexes for saves or mental toughness for more crit chance if i wasnt completionist.


I actually dropped blinding speed during ETR today and did swap in insightful reflexs. Have the speed on item so waste of feat.

p.s. Can't edit anymore? Thanks Epoch and Arkat.
« Last Edit: Aug 16th, 2015 at 2:43pm by Cripey »  

Grands Superhero IRL

Or as they say in Ireland -
Derp derp derp derp. Yellow moons. Lassie.

Hordo wrote on Nov 21st, 2012 at 8:07am:
EDIT: BTW I love your post.  It reads as if English is your 3rd language behind gibberish and dipshit.


majmalphunktion wrote on Mar 20th, 2014 at 6:11pm:
what the fuck guys...

Jeesus fucking shit. This shit gets me called to the principals office.

Assholes.
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Re: Warlock Aura Build questions.
Reply #12 - Aug 16th, 2015 at 1:34pm
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Cripey wrote on Aug 16th, 2015 at 12:14am:
I actually dropped blinding speed during ETR today and did swap in insightful reflexs. Have the speed on item so waste of feat.

p.s. Can't edit anymore?


At the top of the screen there should be an update icon, up there with the home, members, search, help, user cp, and logout. CLick on it, enter password, and bam! Done.
  

OnePercenter wrote on May 15th, 2014 at 9:41am:
I just read that the cat followed up by visiting the dog house later that night, dropping some Willie Pete in on the sleeping dog.  #epochsfamiliarFTW

Sim-Sala-Bim wrote on Jan 27th, 2014 at 2:09am:
It seems like Epoch never loses his popularity.
Even against donuts.
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Re: Warlock Aura Build questions.
Reply #13 - Aug 16th, 2015 at 2:12pm
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"Update Session"
  

Stand on hills of long-forgotten yesterdays...

Looking for a sign that the Universal Mind has written you into the Passion Play.
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Re: Warlock Aura Build questions.
Reply #14 - Aug 16th, 2015 at 9:37pm
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I've been playing around for the last few days and I'm beginning to feel that the best melee warlock, is simply warlock 20. If you lose more than 2 levels, your aura speed drops by 1 second which is a huge dps loss. If you don't take the last 2 levels you lose a few things, the worst being 20% hps and full BAB from the ES core 5.

Other than 2 paladin for the saves, I can't think of much you can get out of 2 levels that would be greater than what you lost from warlock. I think it really just comes down to the feats and equipment you end up using.

When I first hit 20 my buddy and I ran Devil Assault on eN to start getting our tokens. I was running pew pew style at the time and it was pretty easy. We decided to try EH and the 3rd wave ate us for lunch. After simply switching up my build to focus on the aura, grabbing a shield and a weapon with some radiance on it was like night and day. So far I really only have randomly generated items as we decided we didn't want to start grinding out some of the gear we wanted until our 2nd or 3rd life.

Are there any orbs available before 20 that can be picked up and utilized for the SWF feat? I've almost always dual wielded scepters just for the stats and boosts to magic, but now that I'm planning on being able to take a few swings I need to figure out what to use in the interim before I can actually make my TF weapon and get an EE orb.
  
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Re: Warlock Aura Build questions.
Reply #15 - Aug 16th, 2015 at 10:02pm
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Madstone Orb, Blazing Sun, maybe a Wizard's Ward. TF is better than all of these, of course.
  
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Re: Warlock Aura Build questions.
Reply #16 - Aug 16th, 2015 at 10:14pm
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vageta31 wrote on Aug 16th, 2015 at 9:37pm:
I've been playing around for the last few days and I'm beginning to feel that the best melee warlock, is simply warlock 20. If you lose more than 2 levels, your aura speed drops by 1 second which is a huge dps loss. If you don't take the last 2 levels you lose a few things, the worst being 20% hps and full BAB from the ES core 5.

Other than 2 paladin for the saves, I can't think of much you can get out of 2 levels that would be greater than what you lost from warlock. I think it really just comes down to the feats and equipment you end up using.

When I first hit 20 my buddy and I ran Devil Assault on eN to start getting our tokens. I was running pew pew style at the time and it was pretty easy. We decided to try EH and the 3rd wave ate us for lunch. After simply switching up my build to focus on the aura, grabbing a shield and a weapon with some radiance on it was like night and day. So far I really only have randomly generated items as we decided we didn't want to start grinding out some of the gear we wanted until our 2nd or 3rd life.




Melee lock also loses 10 melee power from capstone and 20 light 10 universal spell power from capstone if not pure
  

Grands Superhero IRL

Or as they say in Ireland -
Derp derp derp derp. Yellow moons. Lassie.

Hordo wrote on Nov 21st, 2012 at 8:07am:
EDIT: BTW I love your post.  It reads as if English is your 3rd language behind gibberish and dipshit.


majmalphunktion wrote on Mar 20th, 2014 at 6:11pm:
what the fuck guys...

Jeesus fucking shit. This shit gets me called to the principals office.

Assholes.
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