U74 Preview 2: Iconic Dhampir Dark Bargainer Warlock

[Putti]

I appreciate the theme you're going for here. Personally I don't think I'll be playing this, though, as it just seems a bit too pigeon-holed into one thing which doesn't synergise well with anything else.
Since the dhampir race is very melee-focused I was really hoping we'd get a less caster-focused warlock.

 

[Ichorum]

I would genuinely love it and find it very thematically appropriate if the Dark Bargainer Iconic had access to some kind of a negative strip, this feels like it would fit with Abyss pact so well and that has always been a gimped pact due to how many things are not affected by negative and the major forms not allowing overlap - especially as something that looks like it really wants to stay single-classed like this.
I think this (and some scythe options for quarterstaves, barring a whole new weapon type ) would breathe life into my abyss melee warlock, and aside from a warlock-adjacent epic destiny, I'm not sure if there is currently a better place to insert that option into the class aside from giving love to the Abyss pact itself.
That said, I do really like The Dark Powers as a pact as well and there is a lot of flavor in the Dark Gifts but I also think Abyss could use that little extra bit of love. Not to mention it seems like we're likely going to have a whole bunch of undead to deal with in the near future with the return to Ravenloft.
I really like what I'm seeing and the improvements after the feedback are very appreciated. Looking forward to more iterations!

 

[lppmor]

Hey @SteelStar, I'd love to do this iconic as a Wizard Pale Master. Can you work around to allow this to work?
And I mean: at least don't force this iconic into one Warlock level.

 

[QuantumFX]

Comments:

• The iconic bite should scale with melee power or negative spell power.
• 90% of the things I dislike about this iconic boil down to the Warlock class itself. Eldrich blasting and spellcasting is too damn slow. Celestial Spirit being a Major Form is too limiting to this iconic and the Abyss pact.
• The energy resistance for the Dark Powers pact should be evil, not sonic.

Bugs:

• Attempting to use Dread Mist completely locks the character from doing anything.
• I was not granted Greater Death Aura as a pact spell at level 19.
• The DC for Dark Ascendant Bite doesn't appear to be calculating correctly. I was in a quest where it was displaying a 53 DC, and it should have been 131.

 

[DBZ]

It still doesn't have any stripping just pointing that glaring flaw out after the sneak dice debacle

Lamordia ravenloft lots of undead and constructs probably massive hp meat bags too

 

[Shall]

Touch of Death: is probably the least detrimental choice here. Actually a GREAT choice if solo-ing and using negative spells / Vampiric Blast to heal. It would be awful for group-play however (unless the healer uses negative, and I already complain about Warforged not taking Healer's Friend lol).

I don't have time to get on the test server this week, but does this interact at all with life salve from the apothecary tree, or is that just fully disabled what with how they mention in the dark gift thread that they can't be mitigated for so many of the penalties.

 

[Elminster]

It must be pact or blast (or both, better) dice really, not imbue.

Also, i think Vampire Bite must be ranged for Warlock (like Bat's Swarm, fly to target, bite and return with blood for HP gain ) and scale with 100-150% SP, not with MP/RP.

How do you bite something from a distance?

 

[Ying]

On an unrelated note do you know if the problem with alignment damage not properly getting critical damage bonuses from Isle of Dread augments been fixed or at least acknowledged yet, that severely impacts this iconic.

Still broken AFAIK -- nothing has been in release notes about a fix. Which is a shame considering Dark Bargainer will want that effect.

 

[Fisto Mk I]

How do you bite something from a distance?

It's my Engrish so bad or your? 8)
I already give answer above:

Bat's Swarm, fly to target, bite and return with blood for HP gain

Turn into/launch Bat Swarm. Ever play as WW WoD Tremere?

 

[Ying]

Remove the R7-R10 nuker penalty already. It was added as a bandaid before U66 epic strikes were normalized, but the bandaid was never removed. Warlock damage is already mid at endgame.

 

[Tyrbeorn]

Well that means Warlock only gets 2 procs per ~3 secs, since the second blast of each triplet would be on the CD still

So anything hitting at 1 sec would be 50% faster at building



Then so is base Dhampir, huh? Finally have a race for a Silvanus build in Heroic

Base Dhampir does not appear to be a FR race.

 

[ChickenMobile]

I don't have time to get on the test server this week, but does this interact at all with life salve from the apothecary tree, or is that just fully disabled what with how they mention in the dark gift thread that they can't be mitigated for so many of the penalties.

This required an alt account to test. Test Character was level 20 with -100 pos amp and +100 neg amp.

Results:

• While not in a Undead form, character was immune to the casting (like if you cast magic fang out of animal form).
• Heal (level 15, 12 positive sp) cured 39hp in undead form. Same stats with Life Salve: 118 (should be 167 with 0 pos amp)
• Harm (level 15, 12 negative sp) cured 290hp in undead form. Out of Undead form with Death Salve: 290 (so the same)

So not entirely sure what is happening behind the scenes here but it did help with the positive healing numbers.

 

[justin credible]

How do you bite something from a distance?

 

[droid327]

:

• Heal (level 15, 12 positive sp) cured 39hp in undead form. Same stats with Life Salve: 118 (should be 167 with 0 pos amp)
  

So not entirely sure what is happening behind the scenes here but it did help with the positive healing numbers.

Haha that's wacky! Yeah everything there is wrong somehow. Harm with 12 sp and 100 amp should be 15*10*1.12*2.0=336

So it seems to be adding some positive healing and reducing some negative healing, but it's incorrect even without the new feat, it's an existing issue

But at least it's definitely not just "half power" for -100 hamp like it would be if the formula was 100 / -100 + hamp for negative hamp values...the Dark Gift will definitely make you persona non grata in high raiding

 

[Lotoc]

To be honest if t4's empty spot was something like Blast Shape: Claw or some way to attach eldritch blast to melee attacks it'd kinda bring the iconic's focus on touch range SLAs and effects together, also people have wanted melee warlock to not suck for a while.

 

[Bobbryan2]

I'll be greedy and ask if this could also extend to Aura shaped blast or even the Claw Shape while playing an Acolyte of the Skin. Feels weird to me that the melee blast shapes don't benefit from the risk involved.

I'll second the Aura.

Making this an ability that Enlightened Spirits can't even use is bad design.

But honestly... it should maybe just be half as effective on all other blast shapes?

 

[Bobbryan2]

Hey @SteelStar, I'd love to do this iconic as a Wizard Pale Master. Can you work around to allow this to work?
And I mean: at least don't force this iconic into one Warlock level.

Normalize asking for all Iconics to be made with a +1 lesser heart of wood.

The fix is so fricking easy, here.

 

[Baahb3]

I cannot shake my head in confusion more on the concept here.

Iconic class Warlock (Very happy with this), then...

3 of the 5 cores have nothing to do with being a warlock

We want a caster class to keep enemies in a stationary fog or recast the fog over and over while blasting them but the changeover between casting and blasting is so slow and bad that I would rather throw my scepter at someone then cast multiple things between blasts.

We give a caster class a melee skill (Bite)
We give a caster class melee spell effects (Prey on Fear and Crushing Dread)
We give a caster class a skill to rush TOWARDS enemies
You make effects rely on tactical boni and melee power for a caster class
And the only thing that affects your blast is for probably the least used of all stances?

All for +2 Pact Die and +1 Eldritch Blast die?

Who or what are you marketing this to, because it is not warlocks.

I understand that the Iconic can be played by other classes, but don't you think the essence of it should cater to...well the class it was designed for?

 

[Zaszgul]

Overall, I think this pretty much murders Abyss lock as a playable option going forward (not that they were great anyway). Hopefully that pact gets some love soon, so it is not totally defunct (a way to overcome negative pact immunity, better negative healing).

Giving this iconic Greater Death Aura seems a bit much; capstones should be unique. Is it possible to instead fix the Death Aura spells so that +MCL increases the healing they do instead of just the duration, and then put something else here? Perhaps also change the actual healing done to match the spell description (Death Aura states 2d4 +1 per CL, but is actually 2d4 +1 per 2CL). That would help make Abyss more viable as well - two birds, one stone.

 

[Baahb3]

Overall, I think this pretty much murders Abyss lock as a playable option going forward (not that they were great anyway). Hopefully that pact gets some love soon, so it is not totally defunct (a way to overcome negative pact immunity, better negative healing).

Not to be too confrontational but why should Abyss warlocks get a pact immunity stripping when every other pact, short of Tiefling Fiend pacts, suffer the same thing?

And no, Chaosmancer is not a viable option. Unless they remove the 5% wild magic chance you cannot get rid of.