Thanks to Rubbinns for all his help with my gear set and 5footer for his auralock build (I found buried somewhere).

Now that I'm geared up, I need a little help ironing out the rough edges to (hopefully) suck a little less.  Overall I'm finding the class to be as relatively OP as promised, but I'm hitting a few snags, mostly coming from my inexperience playing casters.

I'm level 8 now, so I know some of these things will be boosted later on, but overall I don't think I'm performing as well as other locks (even allowing for their having more past lives and reaper points).

Healing

What the hell am I doing wrong that my scroll and wand healing sucks ass?  What the hell gets boosted to let you heal in reaper?  Other people can heal each other in reaper but my scrolls and wands only do the usual 9 or 10 points healing.  The only difference between them and pots is pots are actually easier to use.  What am I doing wrong that my scroll heals suck?

Note, no past lives for the bump, but I do have as much healing amp as the gear will allow at level.

Deathblock

This is probably a "no duh," but do you need deathblock in lower reaper?  Deathblock is pretty far off my radar.  For elite, you really don't need it before level 9 (and even then just for a few quests).  I normally fit it into my gear around level 10 or so, then forget about it because it's taken care of.

But man, I'm fucking getting one-shot killed A LOT.  I mean, a fucking LOT.  Not just a little dead, like hit with 600 plus points damage, negative 300 hitpoints type dead.  It's a little more understandable when I'm running R3, but it's happening in R2 and R1 too.

Weird thing is, I solo reaper off and on with my barb/melee toon and it doesn't happen to him.  That might be because he's got better stats, more tomes, and just more defense and hitpoints that he can shrug most of it off.

But even when I was piking reaper as a FvS, I wasn't getting one-shot killed like this.  My toon is a total reaper/champion magnet.  So, you need deathblock in reaper at lower levels?  Why wasn't it this much of an issue before?

Durability

Does that come at higher levels?  With the medium armor?  My understanding was that warlocks were kind of a cross between a wiz and a fighter - spell casting ability with a melee's durability.

My con's pretty much as high as it can go (28 at level 8) but my hitpoints are *meh* at best and my PRR is total shit (24 at level 8).  Like healing amp, there's really nothing else that can be added to the gear to boost either any higher than they already are.

I'm finding my toon to be alarmingly squishy.

It's like the whole Batman vs Hulk thing.  With room to move around, Batman always wins.  But if you put them in a broom closet, the Hulk will clean Batman's clock every time.

I'm getting better at CC and not fighting like a melee.  Putting more distance between myself and the mobs, and can kill most before I get to them - but I'm still learning (and sucking at) that whole fighting while running backwards thing and tend to get stuck in corners a lot.

When that happens, it really only takes about two hits to kill my toon.  It looks to me like other locks are way more durable and can take some damage, what am I doing wrong (and it can't be the gear set, cause I'm using Rubbinns kick-ass gear - even if I can't equip it all yet)?

Traps

They pretty much one shot me too.  Does being able to handle traps come later with more PRR?  I know part of it is avoiding the traps, but with the new content (Slavers, ToEE, most of Eveningstar), that's not really an option for quick farming.  How do other locks manage to get over all the miles of trapped hallways in Slavers?

Thanks.

5 Foot Step wrote on Nov 10^th, 2017 at 10:46am:


No    Because I took DD instead so people would like me and think I was cool 

So that might be part of my problem.  Since I don't have cool past life feats to choose from, is it worth taking enlarge or extend?  Will they help my displacement?

5 Foot Step wrote on Nov 10^th, 2017 at 10:46am:


Probably be easier to do that with my epic barb and just make him my farmer

Skoodge wrote on Nov 10^th, 2017 at 6:11pm:

Some people like 2.5 minutes of Displacement just fine. Not me. I hate monitoring all my spell durations and I do whatever I have to to make that less of a distraction. Therefore, I take Extend Spell on almost every toon I have that can cast Displacement. For me, 5 minutes of Displacement is so much better than 2.5 minutes. Enlarge won't help Displacement in any way whatsoever.

5 Foot Step wrote on Nov 11^th, 2017 at 11:02am:


I swapped them. 

Rubbinns wrote on Nov 10^th, 2017 at 6:40pm:


You could always get all pissy like the clerics did when people got upset that they stopped healing "I'm a divine, not a healer!"

"I'm a warlock, not an elevator!"

5 Foot Step wrote on Nov 11^th, 2017 at 11:02am:


On the flip side, longer lasting spells means using less spell points. 

But if not extend, what?  Your auralock looks good, but your builds do tend to assume someone is TRing a long played toon instead of rolling a new one without offering alternatives.

If you removed the complitionist and past life feats from the build, that gives 3 new feats that need to be filled.  What would you consider the best alternatives?

5 Foot Step wrote on Nov 12^th, 2017 at 11:44am:


Curious (because I'm still learning), why not

Spell penetration, heighten, or enlarge?

Skoodge wrote on Nov 15^th, 2017 at 2:59am:


Spell Pen: The only thing it casts that has SR: yes is Soundburst IIRC. More for an instakill build.

Heighten: Doesn't apply to the things you want it to. Appears to apply to Soundburst, but does not actually last I checked. More for an instakill build.

Enlarge: Actually applies to some stuff, but the point of the build is not to hang back at max range. More for an instakill build that likes to snipe.

Carpone wrote on Nov 15^th, 2017 at 7:58am:


Not able to follow the link from here, but presumably that build just dumps cha so it can take some hits? I'd rather hop around if I get aggro. Definitely not trying to tank. Maybe he can take 2 4k hits, but it's not gonna be 3 regardless of investment.

Having a non autofail Evo DC means more mileage out of pact damage, Energy Burst, Divine Wrath, Hellball, Soundburst, Sunbolt. I should point out that contrary to my build post I stopped twisting consecration in favor of Evocation Specialist as well some time ago.

Quickdraw is assuming you are making use of your UMD score. Scroll healing and so forth. Otherwise, don't take it, but conditional shame on you. (Shame!...Shame!...Shame!)

Carpone wrote on Nov 15^th, 2017 at 11:50am:


True. Evard's is good.

Skoodge wrote on Nov 15^th, 2017 at 2:07pm:


There is wand and scroll mastery in TS, but it's all going to be ass if you're doing Cure X Wounds. Capital "H" Heal only comes on scrolls. You're still going to want that amp though.

That being said, the best way to heal in reaper is to group up and get the other guy to do it. People are getting more used to it. When I join a group and start healing them when they are low, they usually start healing me back. If not, I'll ask them to trade healing. There's no point in spending 2-3x more time and resources both healing yourselves right next to each other.

Level 9 UMD:

12 ranks
5 Deceive Item
4 morale (GH clicky or scroll)
1 luck (Voice)
2 inherent (tome)
3 guild (ship buff)
3 competence (cartouche)

30 so far, target number is 39 so we only need 28 cha.

18 base
5 enhancement
2 inherent (tome)
2 level ups
2 AP

5 Foot Step wrote on Nov 16^th, 2017 at 10:40am:

Let's be realistic: Given the choice between Voice of the Master over Vibrant Purple Ioun Stone on a Warlock, the ioun stone wins out.

Personally, I prefer Persuasion from Cannith Crafting over the Cartouche since you can get it at level 2, and get something else useful out of the item besides a yellow aug.

Also +1 Profane, if you have a MOTU preorder elite mask.

Carpone wrote on Nov 16^th, 2017 at 7:28pm:


There's lots of ways to skin that cat. I was suggesting common stuff that he might have laying around or easily get.

Carpone wrote on Nov 16^th, 2017 at 7:28pm:


A swap item IMHO. On at quest start for free buffs and then back on if you see blue shields. Of course, I usually can't be bothered to remember to fuss with it since sp is so plentiful.

higgildypiggildy wrote on Nov 25^th, 2017 at 5:56am:


I'm playing with that now.  I'd given up on death spells ages ago because they weren't landing on really any setting even though my gear/build seems to be more for necro.

I'd also given up on charms because they weren't landing, but I might have been running R4 or 5 at the time.  Tried mass charm today on epic norm (still using heroic gear, will be upgrading at level 25) and it worked like...well...you know.

Being a noob to warlocks (and really casters), I feel I'd initially spread myself too thin.  I'm trying to tighten it up to having 3 or 4 spells that work really well instead of spamming random spells and wasting spell points because half of them seem to do nothing.