SoundBlaster - Blast your enemies all the way back to 1990!

[Maelodic]

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Do you like holding left click but also want to play a caster? Do you like the idea of charms but they're just too dang annoying since you can't damage the enemy? Do you want to be mediocre at everything but somehow still super useful?

I have a build for you!

The SOUNDBLASTER. The ultimate throwback to a product released before I was born but somehow still have nostalgia for!

Use synergies that somehow make too much sense to turn your feylock into a monster of death and despair! Bosses getting you down? With the new and improved Soundblaster Feylock Omega Supreme, you have many ways of debuffing even the peskiest of bosses to be absolutely sure that every number that appears over their heads gives off that sweet sweet damage enhanced color and grows larger and larger as you continue to pelt them with the supple sounds of whispers escaping your fingers.

Mobs get you down? Throw an enlarged mass confusion at enemies so far away you have to take your computer glasses off to see them and have to put on your fancy driving glasses. Start their fighting and watch them dance for you. You can watch them fight for a bit...

...then run in and end it.

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This build is focused on using the great many synergies between the Fatesinger tree and the Fey pact of Warlock. It focuses intensely on damage via blasting, boss debuffing, and a variety of CC. This makes extensive use of the Tainted Scholar tree as well as Color Spray and the debuffs in Soul Eater to ensure that everything goes down. Enclosed is the build, gameplay commentary, and a new player friendly recommended gear set that performs well in endgame (no raid items)

The build outline given below will be geared at players unfamiliar with Tainted Scholar, and assuming no past lives are in the mix. I will note variations at the end of the build that more experienced players might be interested in.

This build can solo low to mid reaper at cap with proper gearing and play. The abundance and diversity in control options along with the very good boss damage (for a warlock) make this a versatile powerhouse that has a different focus than the builds currently posted.

Build (this post)
Build Justifications
Gameplay Guide
Racial AP Versions

THE BUILD

Tiefling
True Neutral
20 Warlock
Max out CHA, then CON
If you have INT tomes, you put it to 10- if not, take it to 12 (14-16 CON and 18-20 CHA are all fine)

Skills
Spellcraft
Use Magic Device
Perform
(Bluff)
(Diplomacy)

Feats
1 Maximize
3 Quicken (Swap to Heighten, Empower, or PL: Wizard at lv 20 or when you start using Fatesinger) - If you plan on taking heighten, do this feat at level 6 instead.
6 Force of Personality
9 Spell Focus: Enchantment
12 Spell Penetration
15 Greater Spell Penetration
18 Spell Focus: Necromancy or Spell Focus: Conjuration
21 Epic Blasting
24 Wellspring of Power
27 Intensify or Epic Spell Penetration or Heighten
30 Embolden

26 Epic Arcane Blasting
28 Epic Spellpower Sonic
29 Deific Warding

30 Scion of Fire or Scion of Feywild

Spells (First two are chosen, others are granted)
1: Shield, Jump, Feather Fall, Obscuring Mist
2: Invisibility, Sleet Storm, Web, Blindness
3: Displacement, Dark Discorporation, Crushing Despair, Slow
4: Evards Black Tentacles, Teleport, Death Ward, Greater Dispel Magic
5: Finger of Death, Undeath to Death, Greater Heroism, Otto's Sphere of Dancing
6: Hold Monster Mass, Charm Monster Mass, Otto's Irresistible Dance, Energy Drain

Enhancements


Epic Destiny


Twists
This depends on what content you're running. What I run for generalized content is:
Sense Weakness (or Energy Burst: Cold if I'm feeling spicy)
Fey Form
Enchantment Specialization
Rejuvination Cacoon

On a first life, this setup requires a +1 fate tome.
----

Gear
Gear if you don't plan on raiding (~R1 solo gear)



I have a quiver of alacrity for Striding 30, but if you don't, you can get a striding 30 augment from Chor Blast-Horn in House K fairly easily and slot it into anything with a Yellow or Green slot.

Endgame Gear

[Maelodic]

Race
Tiefling was chosen just for the +2 to CHA and having no other drawbacks. Dragonborn and Drow are also fine here - Drow having innate spell resistance can help newer players in earler leveling, and Dragonborn's elemental resistance is kind of neat too. Tiefling has immunity to fear, however, which is a lot more likely to cause new player death.

Almost any race is fine here. This build does not take racial points so it doesn't make much of a difference. (See build alternatives if you do have racial points)


Skills
Concentration is not needed here as everything is quickened. I consider bluff and diplomacy very useful for a warlock that uses confusion, as you can use it to either bluff and confuse a tanky mob who then draws agro and tanks for you - or you can use diplo to drop a mass confusion, pop diplomacy, and then not be targetted.


Feats
There is a distinct lack of Ruin/Greater Ruin/Arcane Pulse. This is because I found it to be a wash as far as DPS compared to blasting+Soul Eater debuffs since casting interupts your attack chain. It is possible to out-perform blasting on this build, however that uses a lot more spell points than the alternative.

Otherwise it's intended to be a good mix of things, nothing crazy here.

Enhancements
Mass Confusion super good, works on a ton of things, very fun.
TS capstone so good for damage.
Eldritch Ball is a DPS boost (for single target) since it hits twice and can be weaved in-between the 3 blast rotation- however it's not a significant enough DPS boost to give up extra DCs or color spray. It's good but it's also clunky, takes away stacks for Staunch, Tainted Spellcasting, and Mass Confusion - and it's kind of super boring.

Going for just cone in Soul Eater and getting the extra spell crit and spell power and CHA in Feydark is a viable route to take, but you'll eat more than you'd expect in boss damage because the debuffs are very strong.

Epic Destiny
---- BEING REEVALUATED ----

Gear
---- BEING REEVALUATED ----

[Maelodic]

In this short gameplay guide, I'm going to focus on the things that make this build play differently than Slarden's excellent builds and Nachomammashouse's tank warlock build.


----Confusion----
Confusion, Bewitching Blast, and Mass Confusion make this build play differently than many controllers out there. Confusion is like a charm, where a monster will attack and be attacked by other monsters. Unlike a charm, the monster will also attack you (... sometimes) and if it throws aoe spells out, you will still be damaged by it.

Confusion also breaks the monster's AI. Every time a monster that is confused switches targets, it pauses for a long while- and after a mass confusion is thrown out, this generally causes a lot of monster hiccups. Bewitching blast also does this - and I'd consider bewitching blast to be very powerful as a defensive ability to take for this reason.

Mass Confusion is also great for throwing into large groups that don't already have agro on you- as even if some make the save, they'll still be put into pandemonium and often will not approach you.

Because of these properties confusion is good for not getting hit and confusion is good for extra damage

Confusion also effects a huge amount of mobs in this game. Mobs who are immune to many other control effects can be confused by either mass confusion or bewitching blast.

----What CC do I use----
Let's just respond to some basic situations:

I have agro and...
They're on top of me!
Use color spray, or mass hold if they're immune to color spray. If they are tanky, use evards to bolster damage.

My CC doesn't work!
If they're immune to color spray and mass hold and are saving your evards, use staunch, throw a panic mass confusion followed by diplomacy and dark discorporation and/or misty escape to disengage. If any one of them got confused, they'll reset agro and you should be able to wade back in

They're spread out, but are coming at me!
Use Otto's Sphere if you don't need extra damage to kill them, and evards if they do. If Otto's cast time getting you too owie'd then cast dark discorporation, find a spot to not get beat up so bad, and then cast Sphere.

They're archers or mages and won't come near me!
You have many single target crowd controls. Confuse one, daze one, make one dance, finger one, burst the others down.
Alternatively, confuse one or two of them, hit diplomacy, and run away. They'll eventually agro onto each other and you can burst them down in peace.

I see them and they don't see me, and...
I have enough damage to take care of them easily without evards
Approach, pop color spray, hold left click

I have enough damage to take care of them, but only with evards. I am not worried about spell point usage
Approach, pop evards, pop color spray, hold left click

My damage is pretty lacking for this situation, or my CC won't last long enough to take them down
Find the middle of the pack and pop mass confusion from as large a distance as you can. Dark Delerium and/or Otto's Irresistable any that may split off and agro you. Give them some time to beat the tar out of each other before running in to finish them off. They'll have built up enough agro on each other that you shouldn't have to worry about grabbing agro, so don't CC them so that they continue to hit each other.

My party ran ahead and I still wanna be helpful!
Long range mass hold babyyyyy

My party ran ahead and I hate all of them
Long range mass charm babyyyyy


----How do I bosses----
Pop Wellspring of Power
Pop Grim Fate on the boss
Use Consume and Stricken
Blast until your Frenzy (20 second movespeed timer) is almost out, then use consume and stricken again- start the casting BEFORE the third hit of the blast animation comes out or you'll restart the animation and lose DPS

If you need to do any supplimentary casting, try to loop it in-between attack chains. The more you blast, the more vulnerability stacks and harmonic resonance stacks stay on the boss and it increases your DPS (and the party's DPS) significantly


----Extra Bits----
Dark Discorporation combined with Staunch will get you through pretty much any trap or gauntlet.

Chain needs to get buffed.

Use Peircing Blast and Utterdark Blast to bypass resistances if needed, otherwise use Faltering.

Cone is a lot larger than you think it is.

You have enlarge on everything. Use it for long range Fingers and Mass Confusions.

Things that tend to have high reflex also tend to go down when you wag your Finger of Death at them.

Sleet storm when you have FoM boots on is still really good. You can fairly easily kite mobs around the storm especially with faltering blast and bewitching blast.

[Maelodic]

The only variations on this worth mentioning are (unfortunately) Iconic, and I would only consider worthwhile if you have a significant amount of racial points extra and are willing to use a +1 heart.

Bladeforged is good for defensive purposes:
-Fatesingers suffer no arcane spell failure, so you can just take adamantine plating (swap out empower for this.) Legendary Glass Heart (the Feywild set docent) has the spell crit on it, which means you can get the full benefit to heavy armor as well as the maximum damage. This makes gearing great.
-Communion of Scribing is very good for self healing through a lot more reaper difficulties.
-Communion of Warding (12 PRR) and Soulbound Plating (5% HP) are also super nice to have
-Bladeforged is immune to a bunch of stuff and has extra slashing damage reduction

This route should also be considered if you want to build a rather tanky version of this. Giving up the power meta-magics for large shield proficiency, shield mastery, and improved shield mastery allows you to twist in the epic shield mastery and grab perfect shield mastery. Combined with heavy armor you should be able to make a rather tanky blaster that only is giving up a bunch of spell power on Stricken, Consume, and Evards. The metamagics don't effect blasting, and since this is a blasting build, you can very easily make a solo monster that does a ton of damage, has great control options, has great self healing options, and never dies.

This defensive variation uses many mechanics (especially abusing fatesinger's lack of arcane spell failure) to allow it to focus on damage in a huge way without sacrificing much as far as DCs or spell power or spell crit.
The requirement for this is too large for me personally, as I don't have racial AP and am still working on eTRs and farming up more reaper XP before I hop back on the rTR train. I don't suspect I'll get to play anything like this on live before the epic destiny pass. I also hate playing as a warforged.

The main drawback to this approach is gearing difficulties. The fiddle orb is *very* good and while Legendary Crystalline Ward is quite good and checks a lot of boxes, the fiddle does some things that you can't find anywhere else and you're straight up losing out on that damage. I recognize that 4-24 on each blast doesn't sound like a lot, but in my testing it added almost 1k damage every other blast which adds up pretty quickly.

Tiefling Scoundrel is the best version of this build offensively and for CC:
-35 extra sonic SP in the cores
-Ash imprisonment adds another single target CC spell that also causes helpless - super good
-With the endgame gear being a rapier, you can get an extra 2 DC in the 4th tier enhancements. You can technically get an additional 2 if you're fond of obscuring darkness but I find the gameplay of that to be horrid

If you're willing to use a +1 heart, I'd highly recommend the Tiefling Scoundrel version of this build.
If you have max racial AP (15)
Drop a CHA from T4 SE, drop a CHA from T4 TS - grab the T4 scoundrel enhancements, all the cores, and hellish rebuke. This ends up giving you a net 2 DC to enchantment, and 35 extra sonic spell power, as well as the powerful single target stun.


The races I'd consider for this if you don't want to spend a +1 heart are:
Drow
-Darkfire for early leveling
-1 extra enchant DC
-15 stacking spell resistance

Dragonborn
-Breath for leveling
-Extra defensive goodies
-Extra conjuration or evocation DC
-Extra spell penetration
(You can't take all of these, but you have choices)

Tiefling
-4 extra spell crit percentage
-Fear immunity

The optimal race here is Dragonborn - you just get more out of the tree than the others. If I had racial action points, I'd be playing drow only because I like them more aesthetically.

[Tilomere]

Hi!

Maybe swap to https://ddowiki.com/page/Item:Vivace,_the_Dreamcarver?

[Maelodic]

Hi!

Maybe swap to https://ddowiki.com/page/Item:Vivace,_the_Dreamcarver?

Hey there.

The gear mentioned is specifically non-raid loot so that newer players find it more accessible.
https://ddowiki.com/page/Item:Hyrsam%27s_Fiddle would be a great pair with that rapier as well.

I'll do a uber-mode gear setup for this particular build once I get optimal sorted, but I wanted to get it out here because I've been wanting to discuss it for a while.

[Maelodic]

Irrelevant, see main post.

[Kza]

Hello

Just wanted to say thanks for the inspiration.

Going to tr into this, sounds fun!

[slarden]

With the spellpower boosts, vivace and the 50% sonic vulnerability this has strong potential to be the highest dps warlock build in the game while also providing nice debuffing for the rest of the party. Nice build!

[Maelodic]

With the spellpower boosts, vivace and the 50% sonic vulnerability this has strong potential to be the highest dps warlock build in the game while also providing nice debuffing for the rest of the party. Nice build!

Without Vivace the build still does very well as an enchant focus controller with some extra goodies, but yeah - Vivace and Hyrsam's Fiddle bring the whole thing together as far as sound damage goes for higher end content.
---

As far as soloing goes this build isn't so great because of the defenses but in a group where you can be throwing out crowd controls, debuffs, and damage it really does shine. Confusion lasts a *long* time even in mid skulls so it ends up being great for organized parties. I'd stick to R1-R3 solo with this.

As far as adjustments to item build I think there's a lot I could do to improve defenses and solo-ability and I'll definitely be working on that. As long as you have the two raid items (or the discount replacements of the U49 scepter and sound orb) as well as impulse and lore, you're set on damage. I was looking at the Anger of the Avalanche set as a replacement for the feywild dreamer set since it provides the important parts and doesn't take up the armor slot. Then you'd be free to run leaf mail for a bit more defenses with light armor at the cost of 5% crit chance. It's been hard to figure out everything I need to be doing and eventually I'll come up with a perfect gear set, but I haven't found anything better than what I posted yet.

Honestly if you're going to solo as a main focus, you should be doing bladeforged as you can just take adamantine plating and use the feywild docent and you don't even have to worry about spell failure because Fatesinger is lit as hell. If you're focused on soloing the other races pale in comparison by far just because of gearing - and then reconstruct being available is a big deal as well and since there's already a huge investment in enchanting, you can skip the feydark stuff for it if you don't have racial ap. I find myself using mass hold over color spray more and more anyway.

[slarden]

Without Vivace the build still does very well as an enchant focus controller with some extra goodies, but yeah - Vivace and Hyrsam's Fiddle bring the whole thing together as far as sound damage goes for higher end content.
---

As far as soloing goes this build isn't so great because of the defenses but in a group where you can be throwing out crowd controls, debuffs, and damage it really does shine. Confusion lasts a *long* time even in mid skulls so it ends up being great for organized parties. I'd stick to R1-R3 solo with this.

As far as adjustments to item build I think there's a lot I could do to improve defenses and solo-ability and I'll definitely be working on that. As long as you have the two raid items (or the discount replacements of the U49 scepter and sound orb) as well as impulse and lore, you're set on damage. I was looking at the Anger of the Avalanche set as a replacement for the feywild dreamer set since it provides the important parts and doesn't take up the armor slot. Then you'd be free to run leaf mail for a bit more defenses with light armor at the cost of 5% crit chance. It's been hard to figure out everything I need to be doing and eventually I'll come up with a perfect gear set, but I haven't found anything better than what I posted yet.

Honestly if you're going to solo as a main focus, you should be doing bladeforged as you can just take adamantine plating and use the feywild docent and you don't even have to worry about spell failure because Fatesinger is lit as hell. If you're focused on soloing the other races pale in comparison by far just because of gearing - and then reconstruct being available is a big deal as well and since there's already a huge investment in enchanting, you can skip the feydark stuff for it if you don't have racial ap. I find myself using mass hold over color spray more and more anyway.

The fiddle dropped for me tonight and literally nobody else wanted it so I got it.

I am currently bladeforged 20 warlock so I can easily just lesser tr or etr into a sonic build to try it out. I usually solo or shortman with guildies so I find the extra defenses very helpful.

[Maelodic]

The fiddle dropped for me tonight and literally nobody else wanted it so I got it.

I am currently bladeforged 20 warlock so I can easily just lesser tr or etr into a sonic build to try it out. I usually solo or shortman with guildies so I find the extra defenses very helpful.

Omg amazing. Let me know how it performs on the obviously far superior variant.

[LeslieWest_GuitarGod]

Ok Maelodic - I have to give you a serious hi-five for the name of your build, thats freikin OLD SCHOOL Cool!!


And while you're talkin' about 1990, I can't decide how to color my flashback...

Should I play the rock riff that has tortured teen guitarist's parents since 1990???



Or should we just try to avoid the Burger King bathrooms that were never the same after this song and do the Humpty dance?

[Maelodic]

Ok Maelodic - I have to give you a serious hi-five for the name of your build, thats freikin OLD SCHOOL Cool!!


And while you're talkin' about 1990, I can't decide how to color my flashback...

Should I play the rock riff that has tortured teen guitarist's parents since 1990???

Or should we just try to avoid the Burger King bathrooms that were never the same after this song and do the Humpty dance?

Leslie! Your build names were always legendary

And both you should just have both.

[john0]

im currently running a spellsinger bard so most of my gear will remain same when i switch over to this warlock. Planning to go bladeforged for the self heal and take advantage of adamantine body + Fatesinger. Im still saving up runes for the new dyrad rapier.

My main question is how much are you generally doing per warlock eldritch blast ( the normal hold left mouse button one)?

Im going to slightly go differently instead 41 in TS but T5 is in SE for extra 8% crit total


Will update with you once i hit 30

[Maelodic]

im currently running a spellsinger bard so most of my gear will remain same when i switch over to this warlock. Planning to go bladeforged for the self heal and take advantage of adamantine body + Fatesinger. Im still saving up runes for the new dyrad rapier.

My main question is how much are you generally doing per warlock eldritch blast ( the normal hold left mouse button one)?

Im going to slightly go differently instead 41 in TS but T5 is in SE for extra 8% crit total


Will update with you once i hit 30

I don't have the rapier or fiddle yet, on lamaland I was getting 2-5k per blast without debuffs/harmonic resonance and 5-8k with those things. I had the fiddle but not the rapier on lamaland - rapier should ascend this build way up since it adds a huge amount of crit damage and the proc is super nice.

Level 25 on live right now, just eTR'd into this and haven't gotten all the way up. It performs well through epics, though. R1 solo isn't that bad even though warlocks aren't great until level cap when it comes to epics imo - very few ways to add extra damage other than just running in draconic or abusing arcane tempest.

I've been experimenting with the 39 and 41 split - the -3 DCs of this split and lesser force damage due to missing an extra dice wasn't too awesome IMO. The extra chaos damage is cool-ish but I'm honestly not too impressed with it. Wave is really the only reason I like SE T5s even though I know FoD SLA is super good. I'll probably stick with T5 TS on an enchant lock build. I use mass confusion a lot as a great free CC - Mass Confusion with enlarge hits way different because you rarely get mob attention when you use it at long range. Right now I'm playing with 31 SE 41 TS and 8 dragonborn. I just find mass hold a lot more reliable in both the things that it hits as well as easier to get higher DCs. Since most of my damage is free I don't mind the spell point cost.

[john0]

Just posting an update, reached lv 30 and generally it feels good. was a easy time levelling, despite not having any proper gear from lv15 iconic until 29 i was able to do alright damage.

At cap i geared up and went into a couple of quests that i normally run on solo r4+, overall it was decent here are my main thoughts:

my normal blasts was around 1k ~ 2k, at cap reaper i could feel the damage falling off, mainly due to mobs hp inflating. Wasnt the worst but it

main CC tools were tsunami (100% knockdown), mass hold (for reapers) and evards as a extra throw in. it seemed to do the job well enough, fey2. pact otto irresistible dance for despair reapers was handy

Was very glad to go with bladeforged for the reconstruct SLA, i honestly dont think i could of played a fleshy with warlock, having to scroll heal or cocoon didnt seem good enough to me.

I had 210 prr and 140 mrr 250% fort 150ac but i felt real squishy still, it seemed that most mobs in fey were critting me very often.


Boss fights were a bit drawn out, comparing to my spellsinger it seemed to take longer but on the other hand as a warlock i felt safer due to having staunch and pretty easy rotation just keep debuffs up and hold LMB + kite

Other notes; the debuffs consume and stricken are very nice and important to your dps but it can be annoying at time, sometime it misses, and im pretty sure it can be bodyblocked if another enemy is front of your target. It also slows down your eldritch blasting cycle (quicken helps alot tho) and the debuff uptime = the cooldown meaning you more or less need to keep applying every 10 seconds. Took me a while to get the feel of it but i think once i got the rhythm it was smoother ( i think theres like a short pause in eldritch blasting after the 3rd one, this is when i use the debuff to break the pause action).


Pretty happy with it overall a simple but effective warlock

[Maelodic]

my normal blasts was around 1k ~ 2k, at cap reaper i could feel the damage falling off, mainly due to mobs hp inflating. Wasnt the worst but it

Yeah most of the damage is backloaded so mobbing is pretty similar to standard warlock, and standard warlock starts falling off in damage around R4-5. The raid gear helps a ton.

Was very glad to go with bladeforged for the reconstruct SLA, i honestly dont think i could of played a fleshy with warlock, having to scroll heal or cocoon didnt seem good enough to me.

The bladeforged lock is super good and I'm constantly tempted to run it. The fleshy version is most effective as an R1 farmer that can still be useful via CC and debuffing in higher skulls but I would be lying if I said I wasn't eyeballing the robot or even abysslock (which is very effective in ~R3 content) as a way to farm up reaper points solo.

Boss fights were a bit drawn out, comparing to my spellsinger it seemed to take longer but on the other hand as a warlock i felt safer due to having staunch and pretty easy rotation just keep debuffs up and hold LMB + kite

It'd be interesting to see a damage comparison vs spellsinger. I found boss fights a lot easier because circle strafing is broken vs most bosses and it's really easy to keep the rotation up. You also aren't SP dumping on bosses which was always a huge bother for me personally. I've been considering running a spellsinger life if I burn out on this because the gear is identical.

Other notes; the debuffs consume and stricken are very nice and important to your dps

Also super important in groups. Between bound/grim fate and the warlock debuffs you're adding a ton to group DPS for bosses.

Took me a while to get the feel of it but i think once i got the rhythm it was smoother ( i think theres like a short pause in eldritch blasting after the 3rd one, this is when i use the debuff to break the pause action).

Casting heals or evards during that time is also helpful.

Pretty happy with it overall a simple but effective warlock

Glad you enjoyed your experience!

[Maelodic]

If anyone is using this build with Vivace and were a little upset with the damage, it wasn't working properly and it will be fixed in the next patch.

Also, I updated the endgame and standard loot. Both sets should be pretty solid. I'm still grinding the raid gear but have most of the items.

[Garix]

As it seems that Feywild isn't appearing in the store anytime soon any suggestions for what gear to look for from other areas? (Non-Raiding)

Just for the sake of whats left of my sanity, please don't suggest anything from Soul Splitter chain. Like ever Still missing a couple of bits from soul survivor. Probably have to use the Kinetic Orb from Rosemary's Ballad rather than the sonic one.

Thanks