Go Utterdark blast - then you can focus on light spellpower rather than force. Just let force be your universal - that's good enough for most things - slot force augments into red slots.

For Acid - The cannith boots at 3/7/11/15/20 are best in slot to get you through heroics.

Level 6 switch to Cone
Level 12 switch to Aura-Lock and go lots of light power and easy mode to level 20. I prefer than to t5 soul eater.  DPS is less than cone, but survivability is way more Temp HP are not reduced in reaper.

level 5: at least 7 fey items
Level 10: Ravenloft kit. (can fit in adherent of magic and beacon of magic set)
level 15: Sharn (esoteric initiate set)

Use Tentacles/Web for CC.
Consume/Stricken for longer range damage (I like the feat that doubles range for these).

Standing Stone Games wrote on Apr 5^th, 2022 at 12:04pm:

I would like to add that it felt more fun to play this way too. I was much happier once I started using ways round deathcasting.

If you mean the rock boots from the cannith challenges...im not sure how easy this is to farm. Infact, i remember the challenges were extremely difficult to farm due to almost nobody wanting to do them and needing to split up to guard the base.

I have the level 5 and 15 caustic forum post sticks, but im not sure what to use before level 5, or what to use at level 20+. Or what to use in my off hand. What stat do i usually want in my off hand?

What weapons should i be using? I have no idea really. What about endgame sets?

Blast is always evocation DCs sadly. Do i focus more on evocation or other DCs? What is the strategy to maxing out DCs? Do you just focus on one school and let spell mastery handle the rest?

If you arent building for instant skills, then what are you building for? Seems like a waste of the 2 instant kills that acid pact gets. You are also missing the soul eater t5 finger of death and the capstone (devour the soul).

I've looked at zehnpai and strimtrom's builds. Zehnpai makes a lot of odd choices like taking charm and ignoring empower/maximize till level 10+. Strimtrom also makes some odd choices and doesn't mention epics at all. Neither of them mention anything about feywild or later stuff, or the revamped EDs. I haven't been able to find anything mor eup to date sadly.

For enhancements, are Faltering blast, stunning blast or Bewitching blast useful? Seems like you would want to kill stuff ASAP instead.

Looking at the enhancements again...it seems that you want to beeline consume/stricken at low levels followed by cone right?

As for race, is Dragonborn a good choice?

ManyCookies wrote on Apr 6^th, 2022 at 1:49am:

Black Dragon ancestry Dragonborn is a very solid choice for a GOO-pact 'lock.

Standing Stone Games wrote on Apr 6^th, 2022 at 3:51pm:


If you do not have many racial AP, is it still worth putting points into the dragonborn racial tree? Not sure how useful the breath is...

ManyCookies wrote on Apr 14^th, 2022 at 7:22pm:


I focus on light and acid spell power.

ManyCookies wrote on Apr 14^th, 2022 at 7:22pm:

instant kills is a fine way to go.  I've tried it and it's fine.  just prefer DPS in heroics.

ManyCookies wrote on Apr 14^th, 2022 at 7:22pm:

Quicken,
Enlarge, hit them b4 they can hit you is awesome
(Greater)Spell Focus Evocation. 
(Greater) Spell Focus Conjuration or Necromancy

Your play style will also depends on the difficulty running. R1s, blast, aura, whatever. But r4s+ instakill is usually faster.

Edrein wrote on Apr 15^th, 2022 at 7:37pm:


Interesting choice, but what do warlocks usually take for EDs in epics?

ManyCookies wrote on Apr 19^th, 2022 at 1:04am:


So I'm speaking from my personal play style here. But I was running Shiradi mantle prior to the nerf. At least on Acidlock.

If I was running Infernal and Tiefling, I'd run Draconic hands down even if I lost some extra AoE procs.

After the nerf I swapped back to Exalted which is meh, but extra survability and the potential to still AOE is better than Draconic where I can't control what the fuck gets the mantle DOT because I'm ES.

Assuming Lynabel changes something to make EBs proc the other mantles. I'll be switching my mantle to Primal post U54. Given I'm running Earth and have the Blighstaff as my caster stick; I'll have the acid and poison covered, same for force. So all 3 procs will be bumped up to about 1.5-2k (damage reported by gimps on Lamania, not actually tested myself) damage each on a 5 second CD. Still not as good as draconic, but again it's AOE compatible.

If they unfuck Shiradi's chance for non-multihit related purposes I'd probably swap to the new shiradi. I've got enough sonic gear (could swap back to Feylock and run Vivace again) or stick with the acid lock and run the Stay Toxic option for poison damage which I'm already geared for.

Ultimately the biggest hurdle to my DPS at endgame for acidlock is whenever I run into content with resistant or immune mobs. Blasts, Aura, and spamming Carrion Swarm is a lot of AOE DPS but it's reliant on mobs not being immune to acid or poison. And when you step into undead or construct content, you lose half your rotation off the bat unless you've got a weirdo poison alch nearby. That being said Arcane Tempest exists for every hurdle that Carrion Swarm can't fix. I just wish Carrion Swarm had kept the rust damage portion from old school Insidious Spores.

higgildypiggildy wrote on Apr 19^th, 2022 at 6:57am:


Problem is that i dont know what im supposed to do at cap?

Ive been told that DCs are not viable if you are lacking wiz/fvs past lives, which I am...so my original plan to use DCs at cap is now bust.

I dont know what im supposed to do at cap as warlock anymore.

Almost all the warlocks i see these days are running tiefling + fire and using the flame cleansed fury set. Is this still viable with only 3 racial AP?

Talked with a few more people and they advised me to just do a blaster lock and focus on damage, that should also be easier to gear since i wont have to worry about spell penetration (which i cant get high enough anyway).

Played around in DDO builder for a while...ended up with 41 points tainted scholar, 39 points soul eater, soul eater T5 but level 20 core in TS.

Feats : Maximize, empower, quicken, enlarge, spell focus evocation, greater spell focus, force of personality (do not have wizard past lives or completionist).

With EDs, i ran into the big problem of how to synergize spellpower. It seems like the most popular damage choice involves going draconic mantle + epic strike + t5 and using ruin/greater ruin.

But how are you supposed to gear for all these different spellpower?

Force : Blast, evards and ruin/greater ruin
Acid : Pact damage and draconic epic strike
Radiance : Pact damage (if using the stance) and SLAs

The level 30 legendary feat (scion of X) mainly buffs one of those 3, so its going to result in a synergy issue anyway.

How does the draconic epic strike work anyway, is there a DC? Or is it just raw damage?

I've tried every strike while playing this life, resetting at various points, and even swapping from fire based (yes, I'm an acid tiefling. I know no bounds). I hated Draconic across the board as someone playing in ES as their main loadout. I tried all of the shape options for the Dragon Breath strike and hated it.

Ultimately Acidlock running primal's strike has been the most fun for my tastes. But I also have the pastlives and gear to support that kind of madness.