arkane83

Zerker and streetfighter both like to live on the edge, and more con is good for a character that likes to stay bloodied. Might can easily be left to 10 in favor of more health. You get to 15 from tenacious and have damage bonuses from streetfighter and weapons anyway. I would even go more defensive, but my builds tend to be rounded that way.

That isnt even specific to a warlock. Sounds like any wizard should grab that cloak for some self healing fireball and firewall cheese. That being said, I ran this as an adventurer on veteran. I had two paladins in the party, one of which was a herald. Plenty of access to healing. This guy kinda felt like a swiss army knife. I need some elemental damage? Nuke away. I need another tank? Leap in, shout for 3 engagement slots, and go to town. You eventually get up to 3 sources of concentration, and self wounding for the helm isnt that important. (Depending on grimoire and level 20 choice). For most of the game the automatic concentration was enough. Again though, veteran. On PotD I can see the merits to this... but damn that helm feels cheesy. One thing I left out of the write up is how amazing spirit frenzy can be. May apply to more types of attacks than it should, and will probably get nerfed

Arcane Fury Difficulty: Veteran I tested this on veteran, should be fine for PoTD. I will test this as my watcher on my next PoTD run. Class: Warlock (No-Subclass Wizard / Berserker) Race: Human Attributes: No Blessing (Blessing) Might: 14 (16) Constitution: 8 (10) Dexterity: 16 (18) Perception: 16 (18) Intelligence: 16 (18) Resolve: 8 (10) Skills: Level 1: Fleet Feet & Frenzy Level 2: Barbaric Yell Level 3: Blooded Level 4: Infuse With Vital Essence & Barbaric Blow Level 5: Two-Handed Style Level 6: Thick Skinned Level 7: Combat Focus & One Stands Alone Level 8: Bloodlust Level 9: Bloody Slaughter Level 10: Ironskin & Spirit Frenzy Level 11: Barbaric Shout (or Roar) Level 12: Savage Defiance Level 13: Citzals Spirit Lance & Barbaric Smash Level 14: Leap Level 15: Rapid Casting Level 16: Martial Caster & Brute Force Level 17: Improved Critical Level 18: Accurate Carnage Level 19: Citzals Marshall Power & Blood Thirst Level 20: Savage Courage or Spirit Tornado Weapon Proficiencies: Staff and Pike Skills: Athletics (for second wind) + Metaphysics Description: This is a fairly straightforward melee oriented warlock which I have used as a hired adventurer. I took almost no wizard spells because grimoires essentially give you access to every spell in the game. I tried this with all barbarian subclasses, and honestly the berserker was the best for me because I always run in a party with a healer (or two). If running solo, corpse eater is a very intriguing option for the self healing, but the higher rage costs are really harsh in fights vs non-consumable enemies. No-sub is your best bet if you don’t like the raw damage over time. Gear is fairly simple. You will be conjuring weapons the majority of the game, so you will want weapons which compliment what you summon. I carried Cadhu Scalth and Modwyr as one set and WotEP as my second set. I always carried 2 or 3 spare grimoires and swapped as needed. For armor I recommend fleshmender or devil of caroc. One of the weapon sets this build uses is Modwyr, but it won’t get the benefits of this weapon once you conjure your weaponry. For this reason, Devil of Caroc becomes very attractive. If using Devil of Caroc, you may want to give Modwyr to someone else (I hate fampyrs…). Voidward is really useful for reducing frenzy raw damage. Helm of the Falcon is also great, since we have fewer ways to boost two handed weapon speed. As far as gameplay, you start almost every fight with infuse, any other buffs you feel you need BESIDES frenzy, then cast frenzy, then cast your conjured weapon (conchealhaut early, then citzals). Infuse, Fleet Feet, Iron Skin, Frenzy, Citzals, for example. The reason or the casting order is that you want max int for all of your buffs. Frenzy will strip away your int inspiration unless you counteract confuse. Devil of Caroc breastplate (if available with your history) is an easy way to accomplish this. Leap into the fray, barbaric shout to help hold the melee line, and barbaric blows to finish off enemies. You also have the option to use this build as an aoe nuker (which I did plenty of times). My secondary weapon set was Modwyr and a large shield. When in “nuking mode” just swap to this set, buff up (minus the conjure) and start nuking away. You will find yourself casting quite fast, and with the benefit of tenacious from Berserker! On some encounters, you may want to start with your sword and shield, cast a nuke in stealth, and then proceed to buff and engage in melee. This character is really diverse and gives you lots of gameplay options! Wizard lets you literally focus on your other MC and passives with no real detriment to the build. The major downside to this is micromanaging your grimoires, but I found that to be a non-issue. I enjoyed using this as an adventurer, and am planning to make this my next watcher for 2.0 and the DLC.

I actually found the 2h conjured weapon warlock was fun from the start, but I agree that the "buff phase" is way too clunky. Also, just dual wielding good weapons using wizard buffs (ignoring conjured weapons) gets you in the fight faster, let's you wear heavier armor (2h + armor = snail), and feels much sturdier. Not to mention dual wield let's you use modwyr to ignore zerker confuse and skip casting infuse... Cool when you set it up, but the long buff time had me move on to other builds.

What if we looked at the recovery side? From a nerf perspective you could add both weapons recovery together for dual wielding full attacks. That would actually make some sense since two weapons are kinda bulky. From a buffing perspective, maybe all weapons should have another look at recovery times. Many people complain about combat feeling sluggish, and two handed weapons amplify that, especially in armor. Maybe two handed should have a built in armored grace type effect, 20% or so less armor penalty when wielding a two handed weapon. One thing I like about buffing recovery time, even across the board, is that enemies get it too. That would make combat harder in some cases.

Does recall agony trigger combusting wounds or vice versa? I never actually tried putting both on a target. Recall the agony, combusting wounds, dual blunderbus full attack...

Skald can still run ancient memory, where most of your healing comes from anyway, but also generates phrases from melee crits. Zerker should help nicely with that. Troub using brisk is still probably going to get faster phrases, but I really feel skald and barbarian are made for each other.

Dual wield and use kind wayfarer for another source of self healing. Exalted endurance and kind wayfarer heal your enemies if confused. Modwyr or devil of caroc, are both good options here and at least one is vital if you mix zerker with pally. I think there is a sabre that heals on crit that would be nice with this. Fleshmender armor gives you another self heal and a weapon or item alot. In 2.0 ring of regeneration and trollhide now stack. More self healing that should be easy to get. If you hate RPing a good guy, you have other interesting options. A Howler (zerker skald) can run ancient memory for self healing and let's you pick up a summon for help on harder encounters.

Shifter can use trickster spells while shifted. Makes for a great pairing

That is quite sad. I really want a warlock that gains magical power from eating dead people. Perfect chaotic evil character.... Well, it may not be as thematic, but I think the berserker / wizard build is the way to go. If the self damage is too much, no subclass is a great option too. The rage cost penalty on corpse eater is really bad. You want to be able to use a lot more of barbarian abilities. The added cost really stifles that... esp vs non kith enemies

Corpse Eater can also get +2 to power levels (not sure if it works with wizard PL when multi) from food you can craft. If the PL from flesh pies does apply to wizard, I could see some caster / ranged builds working really well using corpse eater. I think thematically, Corpse Eater fits the best for this MC. (Blood Soaked Grimoire anyone?).

I have been toying around with a warlock build. If you want to go melee you really need berserker. This also pushes you in a few directions: Infuse with vital gives smart which counteracts berserker confuse. This also drains you of level 2 spellcasts since the con inspiration you also get from frenzy. The next option comes fairly early, Modwyr. Her intellect affliction immunity will be great, but gets overwritten when you conjure weapons. Not the end of the world, but kinda sucks if you want to use conjured weapons. Devil of Caroc breastplate is great, but you need a fairly later game component (vithrak brain) to make yourself intellect affliction immune. You could also use other characters or consumables to overcome the confuse. Thing is, you really want that tenacious inspiration on your zerker, but confuse really sucks for being a hybrid caster. So many things with area and duration .. I would dual wield modwyr and magrans and run a zerker evoker or base wizard. Evoker keeps enchanting and illusion which have a ton of 0s recovery buffs. Transmuter may also work, but losing enchanting sucks. The ogre thing is really cool, but not being able to cast in that form was a deal killer for me.

You just hurt Modwyr's feelings. You really dont want to get her mad. (She is a bit insane) Seriously though, this is nonsense. Modwyr is incredibly useful to berserkers. Lord Darryns Voulge is also really strong in the right build. Saying they are all trash is an exaggeration. They are somewhat situational, but definitely not trash.

I would argue casters get the short end of the stick in this game due to the way martial subclass mechanics tend to benefit other classes more than caster subclasses. Devoted bonus pen works if you cross with any weapon user Rogue and cipher bonus weapon damage works with any weapon user Conjurer power level bonus does nothing for any other caster that summons Lifegiver druid power level bonus does nothing for priests or paladins

5 person herald paladin/troubadour would give you every paladin aura and 10 constant overlapping chanter buffs. You could summon an army of skeletons or ogres. If they have to be one paladin subclass, it's a tough call. Shieldbearer gives everyone the ability to make anyone in the party basically immortal. Kind wayfarer would have a ton of aoe healing going on. Bleakwalker would have the best damage and would thematically fit summoning an army of 15 skeletons.

Heralds are insanely good. One of the more overpowered MC in the game. Dual wield blunderbuss/pistol kind wayfarer troubadour with high might is one of the best healers in the game. This combo also puts you in perfect range for offensive invocations. That cone really gets alot at mid! Goldpact one hand shield makes an incredible tank/healer hybrid. Shieldbearer used to be the obvious choice for tanking for loh immortality, which was nerfed to exclude the paladin. Goldpact Knight / Troubadour with spear and large shield. You are a main tank hybrid that really is hard to kill. Max might, max int, exalted endurance, ancient memory, the silver knights or soft winds. Use spear modal you get 3 engagements. You will have a ton of self healing, aoe group healing, and staying power to hold a melee line.

Sounds like a lot of fun! Does assassin require a lot of micro? I’mAssuming you need to restealth after shots to get the big bonus attacks right? Just treat it as bonus on initial attack from stealth and don't play around it or it gets quite annoying and resource hungry Exactly this. You should open with your crossbow at nearly point blank with backstab from stealth.

Shattered Pillar is bad and you should never use it. Nalpazca is significantly better if you want to spend wounds.Disagree. Shattered Pillars work fine if you purely want to focus on dealing damage and neither take damage nor micro with Dance of Death / Drugs. Since the nerf SP just works similar to ciphers with needing to build resources prior to using abilities. I don’t particularly see why they are trash when Ciphers have worked similar from day one. It’s a different, and arguably safer, play style. You won’t hit the highs of the other two subclasses but you won’t hit the lows either. Drugs are cheap and plentiful...

I personally like troubadors better for double buff stacking (look up the sir sit a lot build for an example). That being said, I tried both warcaller and howler skalds. I really like the howler version. Try this setup; Dual wield sashas singing scimitar and an upgraded Modwyr. This let's you use berserker without intellect debuff. Frenzy is and barbaric blow will now feed you a great stream of crits. Meanwhile, modwyr is insane and sadistic and loves to yell out in combat. She adds a ton of flavor to your madman (or woman) crit machine. I think warcaller is great too. You will be more survivable and have great crit rate as well. The other classes dont really give you as much crit chance. Fighter can get disc strikes that gives intuitive inspiration. Berserker builds have even more hit to crit with frenzy and barbaric blows, but gives up some survivability.

Terrible. You give up illusion and transmutation for what amounts to a duration increase on some buffs. Bonus power level is much more geared towards damage spells... It's especially bad because Enchantment and Illusion have a lot of cross-dependency in their impressive defensive packages. This is, incidentally, one of the reasons Evoker is usable - it gets both Enchantment and Illusion, and so gets almost all of the wizard's big defensive spells. If it didn't get both, I'm not sure even the greater synergy of PL with damage spells would matter. The fact that the most direct damage oriented specialty is also going to retain access to armor and deflection buffs shows how silly the wizard class design is. One Idea I had was to give all specialist wizards extra resources that are counted separate from their per level, per encounter casting, and can only be used on their school. It would have to be something like only 1 or 2 extra casts per encounter max. Think of it like a "wildcard" spell-cast type of thing. Not like empowering to gain back resources, but something that is just a little per encounter bonus to make your illusionist feel better at using illusion than an evoker or a generalist. Honestly, anything is better than the subclasses we have now: Generalist, Evoker, and What Were You Thinking

Quick question, since you play this build, do you know if corpse eater power level bonus from corpse eater only food applies to your other class (wizard) spells? I was thinking of a Tempest build that combines nature godlike, corpse loaf, lord darryn's voulge, and deltro's cage for a boatload of power level with storm spells.

Terrible. You give up illusion and transmutation for what amounts to a duration increase on some buffs. Bonus power level is much more geared towards damage spells...

Corpse eater / shifter for extra awesome points

I found goldpact with the balanced stats was the easiest to stay blooded. Make sure you use the blunderbus modal for distracted, that way you don't have to be blooded 100% of the time. Sometimes its easier just to get the speed boost for some encounters. I ran this build with blessings, so I may alter the stat spread for no blessings to put back some resolve. The high resolve does make a big difference. PS I played this build on both Veteran and PoTD, and the goldpact + high resolve made Veteran a joke. PoTD is going to be harder because enemies have more accuracy and penetration. You definitely will notice a difference and likely wont want to intentionally stay blooded until you have more levels and abilities. Also, penetration is far more of an issue, but not so much for raw damage dots. The fact that you can spread them to multiple targets really makes a difference, and as a result, finishing Serafen's quest for a second aoe blunderbuss is super high priority.

Why not mix ranger with cipher or wizard?