Neverwinter Mod 20 Warlock DPS Build
First, let me start off by saying that I am no master. After almost 3 years of playing this class, I’m still learning things. What I am though, is confident enough to say that my Warlock is in a “good place”. I am a member of NW Guardians of Light, a guild on PC. This is just a build rather than a guide. I don’t expect everyone to just copy this build blindly, nor to agree with some of my choices entirely. I’m more than happy to take any advice, constructive criticism or to engage in conversation with people about this build. After all, this build is an ongoing process and some things are subject to change.
Race
Race is completely based on personal preference, but can also be used to help reach some stat caps or get a small damage boost. Personally I chose Wood Elf as it gives +5% Critical Chance, a stat that I wouldn't have currently capped otherwise. Other solid options include Gith (Combat Advantage), Sun Elf (AP Gain), and Tiefling (bonus damage on low hp targets)
Ability Scores
You will want to prioritize Intelligence (more magical damage) and Charisma (Forte%) in every chance you can. Dexterity is another option during character creation for some Critical Severity if you choose a race that does not get both Intelligence and Charisma.
Mechanics
Curse
Warlock’s Curse is now a feat. Curse is the mechanic that we use for curse consume and curse synergy effects. Warlock’s apply Curse via encounter powers that have no curse synergy or curse consume effect. You can also slot All Consuming Curse class feature which applies lesser curse through at will usage.
Shadow Slip
Our dodge/shift function is one of my personal favorites in the game. It gives us 100% damage resistance upon initial activation, decreasing by 20% every second until stopping at 40% damage resistance. It also makes us immune to control effects whilst shadow slipping. It’s great for avoiding large red areas, or just to activate any time an enemy uses a control effect. I generally use it in short bursts for the immunity and to save on stamina.
Soul Spark
Warlocks can hold up to 30 Soul Sparks at any time. We gain Soul Sparks by using various powers. Soul Sparks offer a passive damage buff of 0.25% per spark, increasing our damage by 7.5% when full. Outside of combat, we consume our Soul Sparks, healing us for 0.5% of our hit points per spark.
Soul Scorch
The Warlocks "Tab" is a power that does reasonable damage, we can buff the DoT portion with the Double Scorch feat by 10%, and is worth doing so seeing as we’ll also be using the Soul Spark Recovery feat to reduce our cooldowns by 3 seconds every time we cast Soul Scorch. However the power also works counter-intuitively with our self-buffing capabilities. Every cast of Soul Scorch will reduce our damage buff from Soul Sparks by 4.5%. Perhaps not a vast amount, but well worth considering when casting your hardest hitting powers.
Stat Priorities
Offense
Prioritize: Power > Combat Advantage > Critical Severity > Critical Chance.
Defense
Focus on Defense and Awareness. You want to have a solid 50% in each of these for endgame content. Be mindful of your HP though as having it too low will cause you to be one-hit often, and too high can make it much more difficult to proc your gear bonuses since the if your HP is higher, the hit for a proc must also be higher.
Always bear in mind that how you manage your stats on your toon is your responsibility. I can list information on ways to get there, but ultimately it’s up to you which route you take.
Leveling
The leveling phase of the game may not be the most important, after all you don’t spend that long actually doing it anymore. Nonetheless, presenting an endgame guide/build to a brand new player poses problems of its own. I hope that this section will help with some of those issues. It will not be a full map on what to do during the leveling process (although I shall add some useful tips), this will focus primarily on what powers to take in earlier stages and when to switch these out for other powers etc.
The very early stages will mean you are quite restricted in your choice of powers, so I’ll start this section from when you reach level 8 and have access to all three encounters. You won’t need to worry about gear during this time, just slot whatever new gear you pick up that is recommended you equip. We also won’t deal with ST/AoE loadouts.
First thing that you will want to do once you’ve completed your introduction quests is to get into a guild (try to find one that peaks your interest and a higher level guild with have more/higher tier boons). Hit the Guild Registrar in Protector’s Enclave or use Find a Guild in the Social section of your options. Equip their Power/Critical boon, Defense/Awareness boon, and XP boon.
Eldritch Blast will be your main at will, with Dark Spiral Charge as a backup for a bit of burst. For encounters use Arms of Hadar to drop a curse on enemies, follow this up with Blades of Vanquished Armies, with Vampiric Embrace as an extra. Accursed Souls will be your main daily for pretty much all of the levelling phase, with Brood of Hadar being reserved for bosses. You only have one class feat to start with: Flames of Empowerment. This is going to be replaced early on as the bonus it gives is negligible in most situations.
At level 10 (and every ten levels after that) you can assign your first set of ability points. Stack all the way into Charisma for the Forte and Intelligence for the magical damage boost.
At level 12 you’ll unlock the Random: Dungeon Queue. Start running this and save your AD to purchase a cheap Epic companion. This will boost your power and get you moving through the levelling phase quicker. Once you get endgame and are able to make more AD you can swap this out for something else.
At level 16 Knox will give you a quest to acquire a companion. In these early stages of the game the Apprentice Healer will help to keep you alive nicely during battle, whilst your Soul Puppet does a bit of tanking for you.
Also at level 16 switch out Vampiric Embrace for Hadars Grasp. This power will be a good one to keep on your bar for any Boss Fights and will spawn your soul puppet.
At level 18 switch out Flames of Empowerment Feature for Shadow Walk. This feature will give you a few bonus stats while leveling.
At level 21 you will receive the quest Artifact Facts from Sergeant Knox. Choose the Lantern of Revelation as that artifact is used even in endgame. The rest don't really have a use.
At level 26 you can slot the Dust to Dust class feature in place of Dark One's Blessings. This will be a constant 5% increase to your dps.
At level 30 you get to choose your paragon path. You’ll be choosing Hellbringer which is the DPS paragon. You’ll be able to chew through the content and get into the beginnings of endgame much easier than trying to heal your way through with Soulweaver. You’ll switch out Arms of Hadar for Fiery Bolt and use this to place a curse on mobs.
At level 33 switch out Dark Spiral Aura for Hellish Rebuke.
At Level 37 switch out Shadow Walk for Deadly Curse.
At level 40 you will be able to pick your first feat. Pick Double Scorch.
At level 50 pick Warlocks Curse feat for the additional 12% damage on cursed enemies. You should always try to keep your curse up on enemies so this one is a no brainer IMO.
At level 60 pick Risky Investment feat. This will and buff your encounter damage anytime that you would spawn a soul puppet.
At level 67 switch out Hadars Grasp for Killing Flames.
At level 70 pick Creeping Death feat. Executioners Gift is also a decent feat, but creeping death will have a higher overall damage output.
At level 77 switch out Blades of the Vanquished Armies for Hellfire Ring.
At level 80 pick Soul Scorch Recovery feat. You will be able to pretty much spam your encounters with the use of this feat.
Congratulations! You’ve hit level 80! Endgame begins now. You can use your additional loadout for either a healing build, or keep your AoE and Single Target builds seperate to avoid gear switching.
Powers and Feats
Single Target
At-Wills: Hellish Rebuke and Hand of Blight
Encounters: Hellfire Ring, Blades of the Vanquished Armies, Killing Flames.
Dailies: Tyrannical Curse/Soul Siphon (You will only use Tyrannical in Single Target)
Class Feature: All Consuming Curse, Deadly Curse.
Feats: Power of the Nine Hells, Warlock’s Curse, Risky Investment, Creeping Death, Soul Spark Recovery.
Hellish Rebuke – This is the only at-will we really use. The hits are hard and continuously doing more damage. Procs Deadly Curse on every hit.
Blades of the Vanquished Armies – Ticks 6 times and procs weapon enchant on every tick. This also gives good spark regeneration and has higher damage per cast than Hadar's Grasp.
Hellfire Ring – This power will give you instant full Soul Investiture stacks, even if you fire it off before the fighting actually begins due to the Power of the Nine Hells Feat.
Killing Flames – We don’t do much burst damage, but in terms of ST damage this is the best we have. We need to make sure we hit this at the end of the rotation (preferably with full sparks) to really get the most out of it.
Tyrannical Curse – Whilst Brood of Hadar has a higher magnitude, making it seem more attractive as a ST daily, TC is much better overall due to it’s extra functionality. TC hits hard enough anyway, but the extra twenty seconds worth of 15% debuff on the enemy allows us to really drive home some damage with our encounters after we’ve cast it.
All-Consuming Curse – Allows our at wills to apply a curse to our target. We make up a good portion of damage by pairing this with our second class feature.
Deadly Curse – Curse deals 25 magnitude damage whenever a curse is applied to an enemy.
Feat Choices
Power of the Nine Hells – We are going to be using Power of the Nine Hells as it synergizes well with the Hellfire Ring to build instant SI stacks giving you 100% uptime of your 20% bonus encounter damage.
Warlock’s Curse – Buffs our damage against cursed enemies by 12%, works great for our AoE after using Fiery Bolt to curse a mob, and is essential on our ST loadout. Parting Blasphemy may work well with a Curse Bite build, doing high damage, but generally runs out of steam quite quickly due to the cooldown factor of Curse Bite making its damage inconsistent.
Risky Investment – Hands down the best option for our third feat, even despite the long time it takes to get to maximum stacks. Buffs our encounter damage by 4% per stack of Soul Investiture that we have, giving us 20% at maximum stacks. The alternative here is Soul Desecration which just isn’t worth it. The puppet’s damage is so minimal that buffing it by 10% is just a waste.
Creeping Death – Creeping Death and Executioners Gift both do relatively the same amount of damage so pick whichever one is preferred.
Soul Spark Recovery – A core feat for this playstyle. Reduces our encounter cooldowns by one second per every six soul sparks consumed. Soul Scorch consumes eighteen Soul Sparks allowing us to reduce our cooldowns by three seconds each time we use it. Wrathful Souls also reduces our cooldowns, but due to the puppet being good at getting itself killed, is less consistent and even when the puppet is around, slower.
Boons
Tier 5 I chose Call of Power and Masterclass. AP Gain and extra Forte are always a welcome addition. Master boon is Blood Lust since Focused Retaliation took a big nerf to damage.
The stronghold boons I use are Power, Defense, and Mount Speed.
Area of Effect
At-wills: Eldritch Blast, Hellish Rebuke
Encounters: Hellfire Ring, Fiery Bolt, Blades of the Vanquished/Killing Flames
Dailies: Soul Siphon, Tyrannical Curse
Class Features: No Pity No Mercy and Dust to Dust
Feats: Power of the Nine Hells, Warlock’s Curse, Risky Investment, Creeping Death, Soul Spark Recovery
Hellish Rebuke – This is the only at-will we really use. The hits are hard and continuously doing more damage. Gives even more spark generation using the No Pity No Mercy Feature.
Fiery Bolt – This does reasonable damage and is used early in the rotation to place a curse on a group of enemies. Arms of Hadar is still weak compared to FB. The magnitude, even combined, is weaker. Factor in the limited range and arc of the power (as well as not striking enemies on uneven ground), and you end up with a lack of reliability.
Blades of Vanquished Armies – This encounter will send your spark gain into hyperdrive offering good DoT damage shredding everything around you with consistent crits. Furthermore, unlike Hellfire Ring, BoVA procs weapon enchants on every tick of its DoT.
Hellfire Ring – Rubbish casting, but has solid DoT damage. HfR will only proc weapon enchants on the initial hit, but that will be for the initial hit on each enemy within your target area. Sadly, it does not proc weapon enchants on the DoT ticks, but we don’t really have many other options as the rest of our powers leave a lot to be desired. This does have the benefit of instantly maxing your SI stacks.
Killing Flames – We don’t do much burst damage, but in terms of ST damage this is the best we have. We need to make sure we hit this at the end of the rotation (preferably with full sparks) to really get the most out of it. This will be used on the elites in groups, otherwise if on your bar, target the lowest hp enemy that you can.
Accursed Souls – One of the best AoE dailies in the game. Hits hard and synergizes well with Risky Investment.
No Pity, No Mercy – Perfect for solo play as it forces combat advantage on crit, which will give us a bigger damage boost solo than Dust to Dust. Still useful in group play if you can't get combat advantage in AoE.
Dust to Dust – Bonus 5% damage.
Feat Choices
Power of the Nine Hells – We are going to be using Power of the Nine Hells as it synergizes well with the Hellfire Ring to build instant SI stacks giving you 100% uptime of your 20% bonus encounter damage.
Warlock’s Curse – Buffs our damage against cursed enemies by 12%, works great for our AoE after using Fiery Bolt to curse a mob, and is essential on our ST loadout. Parting Blasphemy may work well with a Curse Bite build, doing high damage, but generally runs out of steam quite quickly due to the cooldown factor of Curse Bite making its damage inconsistent.
Risky Investment – Hands down the best option for our third feat, even despite the long time it takes to get to maximum stacks. Buffs our encounter damage by 4% per stack of Soul Investiture that we have, giving us 20% at maximum stacks. The alternative here is Soul Desecration which just isn’t worth it. The puppet’s damage is so minimal that buffing it by 10% is just a waste.
Creeping Death – This will stack on all marked targets and the stacks will apply and start doing rapid DoT to clear mobs. Generally AoE situations don't last long enough to gain much of an effect from Executioners Gift.
Soul Spark Recovery – A core feat for this playstyle. Reduces our encounter cooldowns by one second per every six soul sparks consumed. Soul Scorch consumes eighteen Soul Sparks allowing us to reduce our cooldowns by three seconds each time we use it. Wrathful Souls also reduces our cooldowns, but due to the puppet being good at getting itself killed, is less consistent and even when the puppet is around, slower.
Boons
Tier 5 I chose Call of Power and Masterclass. AP Gain and extra Forte are always a welcome addition. Master boon is Deathly Rage.
The stronghold boons I use are Power, Defense, and Mount Speed.
Gear
Whispers Hood of Night - if you meet the caps for power and Critical Strike and can get the drop from Avernus T3 hunt.
Blessed Goristro Horns - if you are still needing a good amount of crit (I would be using these if it weren't for my race choice. Also a good option if you can't get the hood from T3 Avernus hunts. This can be farmed from White Horn T1 Avernus Hunt.
Lion's Guard Helmet - You should not need the power since it is our main forte stat, but this is a good option if you do still need a bit of power. You buy this with currency dropped from Infernal Citadel or can buy the Divine version from Redeemed Citadel with Zariel Favours.
Chest
Bone Devil Ribcage - This is a huge item for meeting caps since when fully procced it gives +12.5% to both Critical Chance and Critical Severity.
Arms
Lion Guard’s Wristguards - These work very nicely to cap off on power.
Tempter of the Twilights Arms - This give +3% encounter damage if you have power capped without the lion guard arms. It will not stack with other gear pieces, but does stack with the collar.
Spiked Defenders Bracers - These give 5% bonus damage if you can get the stacks up before taking a hit and can be very useful, but the absorption from Barkshield enchantment will not proc this bonus.
Boots
Forest Guardians Rad Shoes - Helps to cap off that last bit of Combat Advantage.
Rusted Iron Leggings 5% damage increase is too sweet to pass up. Abomination in Avernus drops this, or get with Juma bags
Rings
I use 2x rings with Snipers perk, being the Guiding Ring of the Spy and Guiding ring of the sharpshooter. 2 of the same ring do stack, so you don't need to have both an epic and legendary, it will stack with 2x epic.
Three Piece Set
I am currently using the Mod 20 Trickster set from VoS. It gives a bonus of about 4.8% damage on average with no strings attached.
Shirt
Ebony Stained Shirt. 3% bonus damage when stamina is high. My stamina is always kept up by my Gladiator's Guile and managed for other equipment bonuses.
Trousers
Any pants with the Critically charged bonus will do nicely
Weapon Set
Mirage set from River District is currently BiS.
LionHeart and Celestial are also good options from ToMM and Zariels Master respectively.
Main Hand Artifact Modification
Hellish Rebuke
Off Hand Artifact Modification
Forte and any stat you are lacking
Artifacts
Active – Envenomed Storyteller’s Journal with embellishments.
Passive – Flayed Storyteller’s Journal (I currently have flayed, but darkened is better currently for the Forte stat), Frozen Storyteller’s Journal (with embellishments, good as a buff artifact), and the artifact to complete your artifact set mentioned above.
Armor Kits
Use whatever you need to meet caps, I currently use 3x Critical Chance and 1x Power
Jewel Kits
Major Combat Advantage kit +1 x 4 – 880 CA each.
Enchants
Offense
Enchants do not provide much of a bonus anymore, so use whatever you need to balance out your stats at end-game (I use 1 Tenebrous and the rest are Assassin's)
Defense
Azures are my go to here to not boost my HP too much. Again, you will want Defense and Awareness up. I choose defense for these enchantments because awareness is already in our Forte making it much easier to raise.
Utility
Darks in all slots for Forte, you can also slot in a Dragon's Hoard if you need Refinement.
Weapon
I’m using Lightning for AoE, and Bilethorn for ST at the moment. Should you not have enough AD to have separate enchants, go with Bilethorn as it is a good all-rounder.
Armour
Barkshield for soaking up big hits in Single Target. (This will make it much harder to manage Spike Defender Bracers if you are using them.
Negation is my current enchantment for AoE as I found that I don't get many stacks out of the Shadowclad with my Deflection Rating.
Shadowclad is good for AoE - This boosts Deflection and Defense % as well as making you invisible at 8 stacks and drops aggro instantly.
Companions
Enhancement Bonus
Perfect Vision – 7.5% Accuracy Bonus, this is good if you already have other stats capped.
Precision - 7.5% Critical Chance if not capped
Acute Senses - 7.5% Combat Advantage if not capped
Player Bonus
Fire Archon - Bonus 7.5% Combat Advantage (procced by At-Wills)
Wild Hunt Rider - Bonus 11.25% bonus Combat Advantage (procced by Encounters)
Staldorf - Bonus 7.5% Combat Advantage
Alchemist Discipline - Bonus 3.8% Combat Advantage and Critical Chance-
Black Dragon Insight - Bonus 7.5% Critical Chance (used in AoE)
Batiri - Single Target use against bosses for 11.25% bonus damage
Bolster Bonus
You need 10 companions at Mythic to complete Bolster. Start with your Summoned Companions, then the ones you are using for Player Bonus to get the most out of your upgrades.
Companion Gear
Gold Leafed Grimoire – big slab of combat advantage here.
Blessed Grimoire of the Companion/Gold Icon of the Companion – Both of these offer a good amount of Critical Strike
Companion Runestones
Indomitable Runestones in all 6 offense slots for bonus companion damage.
Mounts
Combat Power
Tunnel Vision/ Giant Toad
Equip Power
Ruthless Efficiency – 4.5k Critical Strike
Insignia
Dominance for power and forte
Brutality for Power and Critical Severity
Skill for Combat Advantage and Critical Chance.
Insignia Bonus
Warlord's Inspiration x2 - More companion Damage
Gladiator’s Guile x2 – Move faster and gain stamina back easier
Wanderer's Fortune - Extra Refinement, can be dropped for Assassin's Covenant, Warlords, or Gladiators.
Collars
Unified Regal - Incoming Healing
Sturdy Crescent - Encounter Damage (Stacks with Gear)
Wayfaring Barbed - Critical Severity
Practical Regal - Bonus AD
Supportive Regal - Outgoing Healing (helps with heal spec, can use other options)
Thanks for reading. If you have any comments or questions you can reach me in-game on PC @killzemo or on Discord @killzemo#8727 or in the comments section below.
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