ES imbue question

[DBZ]

Are the crit damage and chance augments working

 

[rabidfox]

Are the crit damage and chance augments working

Crit damage was giving 6% and not 15% last I saw. Crit chance working correctly and uses the same artifact channel as flamecleansed, oasis, feydreamer, etc.

 

[Grunndi]

Crit damage was giving 6% and not 15% last I saw. Crit chance working correctly and uses the same artifact channel as flamecleansed, oasis, feydreamer, etc.

So is the solar crit chance currently the functional equivalent of Potency (increasing each individual elements crit chance) rather than a stacking universal crit chance?

And has anyone said if that’s WAI or will be changed?

Does that mean it stacks with the Elders set? That probably actually simplifies things.

 

[rabidfox]

So is the solar crit chance currently the functional equivalent of Potency (increasing each individual elements crit chance) rather than a stacking universal crit chance?

And has anyone said if that’s WAI or will be changed?

Does that mean it stacks with the Elders set? That probably actually simplifies things.

It's the equivelent of artifact lore as found on all the sharn sets, desert sets, dock sets, etc. It replaces those older sets nicely. It isn't universal artifact lore like that are found on Vecna, Dread, Elders, etc. (which it will stack with). As for for WAI or not, it's been around for a couple months now and provides the exact same bonuses as what older sets provided; so I'd hope it is working correctly and never gets changed (as people invest effort to get those augments).

 

[Grunndi]

It's the equivelent of artifact lore as found on all the sharn sets, desert sets, dock sets, etc. It replaces those older sets nicely. It isn't universal artifact lore like that are found on Vecna, Dread, Elders, etc. (which it will stack with). As for for WAI or not, it's been around for a couple months now and provides the exact same bonuses as what older sets provided; so I'd hope it is working correctly and never gets changed (as people invest effort to get those augments).

Interesting… that probably makes Tetris quite simple, but def means my set needs a rework.

Kind of lame IMO that all those more flavorful sets are now obsolete.

 

[rabidfox]

Kind of lame IMO that all those more flavorful sets are now obsolete.

Kinda happy myself. I'd been locked to flamecleanse for years with zero chance of ever replacing it until now on my fiend warlock.

 

[Grunndi]

Kinda happy myself. I'd been locked to flamecleanse for years with zero chance of ever replacing it until now on my fiend warlock.

Yes, but now every caster set will pretty much look the same.

What’s your new fiend warlock set look like?

 

[rabidfox]

What’s your new fiend warlock set look like?

It looks like disappointment. The MD gear isn't generally caster oriented. It's a ton of silly tetris and requires the ultra rare solar spell crit augment; but it would allow for using the warlock raid bracers (which breaks flamecleansed 3 piece as bracers are part of that set- thus the solar augment is nice). Nothing I've tetris'd in a planner is my idea of "good", it's just slightly better thanks to the raid bracers and a little extra DCs from MD gear; but far from anything I'd want to do given the horrible grind & effort for that augment. (I could post what I have in the planner, but it's so not my idea of pretty or anything; maybe in the future as more solar/moon gear comes out with future content things will be better)

 

[Grunndi]

It looks like disappointment. The MD gear isn't generally caster oriented. It's a ton of silly tetris and requires the ultra rare solar spell crit augment; but it would allow for using the warlock raid bracers (which breaks flamecleansed 3 piece as bracers are part of that set- thus the solar augment is nice). Nothing I've tetris'd in a planner isn't my idea of "good", it's just slightly better thanks to the raid bracers and a little extra DCs from MD gear; but far from anything I'd want to do given the horrible grind & effort for that augment. (I could post what I have in the planner, but it's so not my idea of pretty or anything; maybe in the future as more solar/moon gear comes out with future content things will be better)

The rework I’m approaching for this project is coming out quite ugly as well. Elder’s, Dino and MD gear, 2 Cannith rings, and no less than 4 Aug sets

Either that or back to Elders/Feywild Dreamer

 

[DBZ]

Elders and feywild works no fuss no muss no 3 years of grinding since next xpack will be in 2

 

[Grunndi]

Breifly played with a few options:

Deacon + Sun Augs + Dino + Aug sets
Elder + Feywild + Dino + Aug sets
Elder + Sora Kell + Sun and Moon Augs
Elder + Sun and Moon Aug + Aug sets

So far no clear standouts. Who would have thought trying to fit DCs, damage buffs for 3 different Elements, Imbue dice, and Sneak dice would have been so tricky

I kind of like that there’s no clear “best”. I briefly played with dropping the sneak dice and Force stuff, but it’s baked into the pact bracers so doing that doesn’t actually help much.

 

[Zarkarion]

Hmmm…. Well that’s interesting… dusted off a very old alt I had forgotten about and yes, can confirm the imbue does in fact crit when blasting.

Confirmed:
"Spell Crit! Your Eldritch Chain has greater effect!"
"You hit Carrion Crawler for 1,095 points of light damage".

And that is with only 15 bonus imbue dice - final build will have 27 bonus imbue dice plus the toggle.

 

[Grunndi]

Confirmed:
"Spell Crit! Your Eldritch Chain has greater effect!"
"You hit Carrion Crawler for 1,095 points of light damage".

And that is with only 15 bonus imbue dice - final build will have 27 bonus imbue dice plus the toggle.

What’s your light SP and crit damage for that?

 

[saekee]

To make SD's Paranoia really work, don't you need a lot of sneak dice? How much do you have?

 

[Grunndi]

To make SD's Paranoia really work, don't you need a lot of sneak dice? How much do you have?

12 is reasonably attainable 7 from SD, 3 artifact, 2 profane (Dino armor/orb).

I’m not saying it’s super useful, just that it’s prob how to get maximum damage from an Edritch blast.

 

[BiggerTrolls]

Am I off base or is 10d6 with 1000 force spell power reasonably 385 bane damage? This seems not very good.

 

[Grunndi]

Am I off base or is 10d6 with 1000 force spell power reasonably 385 bane damage? This seems not very good.

When you take crits into account it’s prob closer to an average of 1k damage per hit for AoE shapes (1.5k for Enervating Shadow), which given the rather slow attack rate of blasting is not particularly good compared to the DPS potential of most other classes.

But that’s kind of a natural limitation of warlocks at the moment. In a world of Expanded crit AoE inquis shots and SDK chains, Eldritch Blasting will never be particularly “good” in higher skulls.

I’m kind of just curious how high you can squeeze the damage. Passable but still not great is my realistic expectation lol.

 

[DBZ]

Better shiradi proc rates to the same 15 percent would help locks but they won't even do that

 

[vryxnr]

Well, you can get higher total imbue dice, though for max imbue dice (which includes celestial form in ES for an extra +3) means you'll have to choose between crit chance and cone, or crit damage and chain (or stick with aura and melee attacks, but the imbue from melee attacks do not crit, while the imbue tacked onto the aura procs still do/can/will crit).

+3 Artifact (set or solar gem)
+1 Enhancement (gem from Hunt)
+2 Electrocution filigree set (3 piece)
+2 Long Shadow filigree set (3 piece)
+2 Snake Bite filigree set (3 piece)
+2 Reverberate filigree set (2 piece)
+1 Snowpeaks filigree (+2 if you have one in a weapon and another one in a minor artifact)
+3 Scion of Feywild/Air/Earth/Fire/Water legendary feat
+2 Embodiment of Law (or harbinger of chaos depending on pact/alignment)
+1 Enhanced Elemental Dice
+3 Celestial Form
+3 Draconic ED (13 points minimum)
+3 Machrotech ED (13 points minimum)
+3 Primal Avatar ED (via mantle - 12 points minimum)
(you can swap one ED for Shiradi which also gives +3, but that is 23 points minimum and might not mesh with other aspects of being a warlock)

that's a potential 32 bonus dice, or 33 dice total

I made one on Cormyr just to play around with the idea, and while I don't have exactly all the gear I want, it's still doing it's thing. I went with max dice and crit damage on chain (ES 31 with TS 41), so for Light it's a 40% crit chance with +140% crit damage on each chain blast. Only around 750 Light spell power atm though. Average non-crit imbue damage is around 1k, with crits bringing it up to 3.4k ish. That is not including other debuffs that come with most warlocks like Consume/Taint the Aura, etc. So it's nice, but nothing super crazy either (I would much prefer to use cone tbh, but that means either losing +3 dice from Celestial form, or 40% spell crit damage and other goodies from Heretical Lore, neither of which seems like a good trade). If I wanted to change it to use cone, I'd keep the TS capstone and lose 3 imbue dice from ES (I think +40% spell crit and 1d6 base blast damage is worth more then 3 imbue dice / going from 33 to 30 imbue dice)

and reminder that this is in addition to 17d8 eldritch blast damage and 21d6+1 pact damage ... I don't have the pact bracers from threats, otherwise pact would be +3 more.

It still pales in comparison to the damage non-warlock DPS builds can do, but it is an option for warlocks who want to focus on blasting.

edit: I guess if you have racial completionist you can then go Drow for an extra +2 imbue dice from their racial tree (11 points for +1, 16 points for +2). 11-16 points is a bit too steep a cost without the bonus points from racial past lives imo, especially with how much in the warlock trees comes very late in them.

 

[BiggerTrolls]

Well, you can get higher total imbue dice, though for max imbue dice (which includes celestial form in ES for an extra +3) means you'll have to choose between crit chance and cone, or crit damage and chain (or stick with aura and melee attacks, but the imbue from melee attacks do not crit, while the imbue tacked onto the aura procs still do/can/will crit).

+3 Artifact (set or solar gem)
+1 Enhancement (gem from Hunt)
+2 Electrocution filigree set (3 piece)
+2 Long Shadow filigree set (3 piece)
+2 Snake Bite filigree set (3 piece)
+2 Reverberate filigree set (2 piece)
+1 Snowpeaks filigree (+2 if you have one in a weapon and another one in a minor artifact)
+3 Scion of Feywild/Air/Earth/Fire/Water legendary feat
+2 Embodiment of Law (or harbinger of chaos depending on pact/alignment)
+1 Enhanced Elemental Dice
+3 Celestial Form
+3 Draconic ED (13 points minimum)
+3 Machrotech ED (13 points minimum)
+3 Primal Avatar ED (via mantle - 12 points minimum)
(you can swap one ED for Shiradi which also gives +3, but that is 23 points minimum and might not mesh with other aspects of being a warlock)

that's a potential 32 bonus dice, or 33 dice total

I made one on Cormyr just to play around with the idea, and while I don't have exactly all the gear I want, it's still doing it's thing. I went with max dice and crit damage on chain (ES 31 with TS 41), so for Light it's a 40% crit chance with +140% crit damage on each chain blast. Only around 750 Light spell power atm though. Average non-crit imbue damage is around 1k, with crits bringing it up to 3.4k ish. That is not including other debuffs that come with most warlocks like Consume/Taint the Aura, etc. So it's nice, but nothing super crazy either (I would much prefer to use cone tbh, but that means either losing +3 dice from Celestial form, or 40% spell crit damage and other goodies from Heretical Lore, neither of which seems like a good trade). If I wanted to change it to use cone, I'd keep the TS capstone and lose 3 imbue dice from ES (I think +40% spell crit and 1d6 base blast damage is worth more then 3 imbue dice / going from 33 to 30 imbue dice)

and reminder that this is in addition to 17d8 eldritch blast damage and 21d6+1 pact damage ... I don't have the pact bracers from threats, otherwise pact would be +3 more.

It still pales in comparison to the damage non-warlock DPS builds can do, but it is an option for warlocks who want to focus on blasting.

edit: I guess if you have racial completionist you can then go Drow for an extra +2 imbue dice from their racial tree (11 points for +1, 16 points for +2). 11-16 points is a bit too steep a cost without the bonus points from racial past lives imo, especially with how much in the warlock trees comes very late in them.

I didn't see drow racial or curse mentioned. That's 2 & 2.

I've done a bit of imbue aura lock builds. I always wanted more out of them. I tried an elf race with 2 level of rogue and got +7 imbue with an 18/2 split. I don't know the trade off points where 3 imbue is worth ?? Spell power etc.

I enjoy these kinds of builds, good info.