The green mean, Warlock machine

Just to be clear, now when I have 3 Warlocks it’s unlikely going to remain that way.

My melee is going to change. Unless Epic levels turn out to be nothing but butter success (and I doubt it will) I will most likely going to change him once I do a few Epic TRs. Primarily because it’s not good enough – the DPS is not solid enough to justify pushing a crazy amount of  buttons to do less of what a purer build can. In that respect I enjoyed the experiment but will agree that it was fun while it lasted.

As such my melee will eventually change back to pure fighter vanguard or something.

Second – I like my Sonic based Warlock but it leaves a arcane hole in my lineup. I prefer to have a solid sorc or Wiz. So after doing a few Epic reincarnations I will most likely make him wizard or sorc again. Or maybe even pure spellsinger (no hybrid).

Put simply – I don’t need, or want 3 Warlocks.

My Warforged Old One Warlock however will remain like this for a while. It’s very resource intense to convert him to a true neutral Warforged Warlock so he’s going to have to suck it up and to well as Warlock for a bit. Sure, I might test out other pacts while I Epic reincarnate him – say Fey one time and Fiend another. He’s already aligned correctly, but he’ll remain pure.

Right now as acid it works very nicely, but we’ll see later on just how much the loss of that Otto’s disco ball will change the basic play.

Web works for a bit – mostly in Epic hards and almost never in EE – no matter how much you invest. Advard’s Black Tentacles however seem to work fairly okay – I just need to boost them appropriately for effect. I do wish there was an upper end type Diabolist/Greater Abashai scheme. It’s terrific in low Epics (increase of conjuration and evocation spell levels). Most other items increase the DC, not the spells. I don’t know if that will change with Epic green steel but I hope Turbine makes those items diverse and useful – and not just more of the same.

Whatever is the case – this guy is going to stay Warlock for a while so the other Warlocks has to change to something else. I really don’t need or intend to use that many.

Now let me state this; Warlocks are good. They’re limited to scope – as generalists they’ll be focused on one area – such as CC for Fey, insta killing for Fiend (broadly) and ‘dps’ for Old ones. Sure – any of them can do any of that but the pact specific spells and abilities lend more towards one area then the other.

However the main attack and the few spells mean more of a broader generalist, rather then specialist. So if you play Warlock don’t expect to be the best. But very good and slaying hordes of trash mobs.

The one basic downside is not enough raw DPS for say taking down high HP targets. Nor the kind of DC to be great at CC or insta killing. There are much better builds for that. But in general they will do well against trash mobs and you’ll have to work a little longer to deal with bosses.

I recently did EE on my level 20 Warlock (Almost the entire Sentinel chain). I used Shiradi and black tentacles ‘work’. Not perfectly but alot better than say Web. The key was a lot of running backwards. Spot healing came from cocoon and it’s not always useful. I died a few times, but not overly much and the constant chained barrage of perceiving damage and sonic did its work.

The boss fights were long due to piles of HP and lack of high DPS spells, but as long as you keep your distance and keep the basic absorbs running it’ll be fine. The end fight in Sentinel can be extra brutal. Lots of traps and some pretty hard hitting critters, but distance and relentless barrages makes all the difference.

Plus the Fey Pacts ‘abundant step’ type feature. It allows you to ‘jump’ over most traps.

I did this for several reasons – but I wanted to see how well the DPS and the DC held up. And as I guessed the disco balls, the webs were more or less useless. The black tentacles did let them pass at times but it still did damage, slowed them down and was effectively combined with main attacks.

That’s not to say this and other early epics are particularly difficult.  Not compared to upper end Epics with greatly ramped up saves and damage. But it shows me that Warlocks are great generalists and not specialists. You won’t take a Warlock into EEs for their perfect CC or insta killing. I’m sure some completionist characters can, but you do it for a really decent general DPS.

Plus there is some flexibility in the role cone shaped and chained attacks lend to the table. Cone is perfect for crowded areas and can clean the plate in little time. Chained is perfect where there’s dispersed crowds and range.

Am I going to continue to do EE’s? In a few cases yes, in others no – it takes too long. And I really don’t have any problem getting enough XP to level up. But it also means that if I join a group run I know I’m not going to be worthless in a pinch.