New Warlock Discussion

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I_Am_King_Midas
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New Warlock Discussion

Post by I_Am_King_Midas » Mon Aug 30, 2021 3:01 pm

How do people feel about the new warlocks? What builds are you currently using? Do you prefer charisma, dexterity or, something else? Let's get a fun discussion going. :D
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Re: New Warlock Discussion

Post by Good Character » Tue Aug 31, 2021 12:58 am

While I am certain there is at least an B-tier warlock build out there now, there's some overwhelming flaws that can be abused against these new warlocks; it mostly revolves around their survivability given their HP was reduced to a d6.

I think what we'll see is the classic warlock we've come to know and love will shine as solely Infernals unless Abyssal gets changed (wild magic is not fun). I am really, really excited about Unseelie Fey and its healing component. It currently feels weak as their positive EB is just a much weaker Healer's Kit. I hope they permit Eldritch Doom to AoE heal if they don't increase the healing EB does.

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Re: New Warlock Discussion

Post by Dr. B » Tue Aug 31, 2021 3:48 am

27/3 Warlock/BGs with their primary stat in dex and secondary stat in charisma. Take Greater Eldritch Spear and as much Eldritch Mastery as you can, then run around kiting people with divine shield up and peppering them with high AB Eldritch blasts. Against enemy melee-ers your HP isn't usually a concern because people can't hit you when you're kiting anyway and your high AC will usually protect you in the event they do.

In PvE you stand there with divine shield up and facetank enemies with eldritch blasts.

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Re: New Warlock Discussion

Post by Wethrinea » Tue Aug 31, 2021 7:21 am

Never played a warlock before, but I am really excited about the new Feylock. Without having had the time to try it, it seems possible to be rather versatile with wildshape for OK tanking, some neat enchantment spells for PvE control/debuff and generally a lot of RP cookies.

It will probably not be fantastic, but looks like a lot of fun.
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Re: New Warlock Discussion

Post by Waldo52 » Wed Sep 01, 2021 5:43 pm

I'm curious about the potential for hexblade/warlock synergy. It's so early since these changes so we obviously don't have any builds posted, so I'm trying to figure out if the whole eldritch blast/hex/curse cross class synergy is going to be overpowered cheese or a total waste of time.

Let's assume warlock 5/hexblade 25 for convenience, although I'm sure people are theorycrafting with lots of different level combinations right now. So we're talking Level 27 eldritch blasts and level 17 hexes/curses.

I'm thinking that dexterity based warlocks might start to shine because you'll have good AC through stats and buffs plus defensive tricks (like vampiric drain from curse of blood) to stay alive.

Also, the epic hag pact gives absolutely hilarious bonuses to bluff and set trap (basically another epic skill focus for each). Combined with actual ESF for both or either this allows for some very funny options for sneaky magical characters.

I'm envisioning a build with a decent caster level, a wide and deep skill pool, good AC, reliable 8th level spellcasting, 4 attacks a round and somewhat descent vampiric, defensive or debuffing goodies. That plus a passably decent eldritch blast that just might put you to sleep and either a game breaking disguise skill or almost unsavable traps.

Again, this is all new. I don't know if I'm on to something really cool or if this is going to amount to a lousy caster, a lousy sneak and a frail "tank" adding up to less than the sum of its parts.

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Re: New Warlock Discussion

Post by AstralUniverse » Wed Sep 01, 2021 11:03 pm

Dr. B wrote:
Tue Aug 31, 2021 3:48 am
27/3 Warlock/BGs with their primary stat in dex and secondary stat in charisma. Take Greater Eldritch Spear and as much Eldritch Mastery as you can, then run around kiting people with divine shield up and peppering them with high AB Eldritch blasts. Against enemy melee-ers your HP isn't usually a concern because people can't hit you when you're kiting anyway and your high AC will usually protect you in the event they do.

In PvE you stand there with divine shield up and facetank enemies with eldritch blasts.
I tried exactly that, on a Drow, and I was very disappointed by the damage output.

Right now I think it's optimal to go pure 30 warlock with 20 con and 24 cha, with EDR 3, and for pact(s) I would either take Unseelie III epic summoner, dark blessing, Agonizing Blast and... probably E-spear(?). Not sold about the last one but it probably the best option at that point.

OR~ same as above, but remove dark blessing, e-spear and greater summon in order to grab Infernal 3 instead (with gsf evo, and you get greater summon for free from Epic infernal). And then you also spam Darkness and have 4d6 x2 ticks aoe blast (so it's actually 8d6 per blast, and 16d6 per round) and other things I dont remember right now. I think it's my favorite combo atm. Unseelie 3, Infernal 3, Summoner, Agonizing.

There's also Undying/Infernal combo, which is a livelord but it's not MUCH tankier than any other lock with edr 3 and it's DR doesnt even stack with edr anyway, so I dont know about that one. But it's probably the hardest to kill from the three. It's infernal 3, undying 3, summoner, agonizing and... I think it was dark blessing last.

Star + monk dip (but honestly those monk levels are kind of unnecessary) with even just 20 maxed wisdom seems like a good foundation for a build, but it cant be an epic summoner and multiclassed, and giving up the 2 best warlock bonus feats seems expensive just to get a boost of AC on a build that scales with DR. So it's a hard one for me to wrap my head around and I dont actually know how good it is.

tl;dr Unseelie is a bit overpowered compared to the rest. gives free concealment breach and infi haste and a BUNCH more things. nothing really competes with that imo.

Things that rekt warlocks and there's little to do about it from the warlock's end:
WMs.
WMs with saves.
Dex WMs especially.
like... 11 swash, 3 div, 16 wm kind of builds. You get the idea.
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Re: New Warlock Discussion

Post by MRFTW » Thu Sep 02, 2021 9:10 am

Really enjoying reading people's thoughts. Interested in it people consider EDR worth the 3 feats on an undying pact lock? Seems a bit expensive when you're pretty survivable anyway.

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Tyrantos
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Re: New Warlock Discussion

Post by Tyrantos » Thu Sep 02, 2021 9:13 am

Supposedly EDR 3 does not stack with the DR on Undying warlock sadly.

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Re: New Warlock Discussion

Post by MRFTW » Thu Sep 02, 2021 10:38 am

Tyrantos wrote:
Thu Sep 02, 2021 9:13 am
Supposedly EDR 3 does not stack with the DR on Undying warlock sadly.
Correct, but that doesn't mean it's suboptimal

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Re: New Warlock Discussion

Post by Gazfrost » Tue Sep 14, 2021 3:53 am

I tried out a lot of optional builds without choosing a second class and the one I made that out shined the other builds was the Fey/Abyssal pacts ..
Fey has defensive and crowd control spells as well its not bad at healing, plus double dominate..

Abyssal for its damage output, you just have to put up with the Wild Surges that is not as bad as you progress in the Abyssal pacts.

No need to make Eldrich blast better.

Confuse and Chain lighting works so well.
For those feats you would have waisted on making Eldritch blast better instead you will have 2 Epic pacts as well as your Tier 6 summons.

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