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Scourge Warlock Powers and Feats
orodalf
Member, Neverwinter Beta Users Posts: 0 Arc User
In the following post, I endeavor to explain/clarify some of the powers that are less than clear as to what they do.
In general, I believe that all Area of Effect Powers that Warlocks can use have a 5-target cap.
General Powers:
In general, I believe that all Area of Effect Powers that Warlocks can use have a 5-target cap.
General Powers:
- Warlock's Curse: "Places a Warlock's Curse on your target, increasing the damage they receive from you by 20%. You may place your Warlock’s Curse on up to 3 different targets, but the damage bonus will be divided between them. Can be placed on up to three targets."
Comments: Note that this damage increase will not be displayed in the combat log as 120(100); it will show up as a pure 120.
- Lesser Curse: "Deals damage over time, and counts as a curse for power interactions.
Applied by numerous powers and feats."
Comments: Does its damage over four hits.
- Soul Puppet: "Several Warlock powers can summon a Soul Puppet to fight alongside you. You may only have a single Soul Puppet active at any time. Soul Puppets will follow you for 120 seconds or until they have attacked 5 times, at which point they will dissipate. If you attempt to summon a Soul Puppet when you already have one active your current Soul Puppet gains a 20% increase in damage for 20 seconds. This effect can stack up to 5 times."
Comments: At level 60, Soul Puppets seem to have a (fixed) Maximum Hit Points of 6000 and Damage Resistance of 16%. Attempting to summon a Soul Puppet will not refresh the current Soul Puppet's duration. In its current form, whether or not the Soul Puppet's hits are Critical is determined when they are summoned; either all of them are Critical or all of them are not. Damage done by Soul Puppets counts as damage done by you, so their damage IS increased by Warlock's Curse and it DOES apply your Life Steal and Armor Penetration stats.
- Dark Spiral Aura: "Fire a blast of dark energy at your target, expending your collected Dark Spirals to increase the damage and Action Point gain. If you have no Dark Spirals, you will create one instead of attacking. Additionally, you gain a Dark Spiral when you land a killing blow on a foe.
Curse Synergy: Whenever one of your Cursed targets is killed, you collect a Dark Spiral. (Max 3)"
Comments: You will only collect Dark Spirals (displayed as floating orbs of Necrotic energy surrounding the Scourge Warlock) when this Power is on your loadout. Dark Spirals come from the sources mentioned in the tooltip; the maximum is 3 regardless of source. Each Dark Spiral contributes the same amount to your damage, i.e., 2 Dark Spirals do twice the damage that 1 Dark Spiral does, but two-thirds the damage 3 Dark Spirals do. All Dark Spirals are consumed if you use this Power when you have Dark spirals.
Additional ranks of this Power add 10% (each) to the damage this Power does and the AP gained from this Power.
- Eldritch Blast: "A blast of eldritch flame scorches your target. The third strike also damages enemies around your primary target."
Comments: The first hit deals 100% of the tooltip damage, the second hit 200%, and the third hit an AoE 300%. The third strike can hit a maximum of 5 targets and has a radius about the size of that of Chilling Cloud.
- Hand of Blight:" "You form necrotic power in your hand and hurl it at your opponent from range.
In melee range you don't form the projectiles and attack faster. In addition, these melee strikes create Blight the target temporarily reducing their damage. (Max 4 stacks). The fourth hit at either range deals additional damage, and the melee hit also adds an additional stack of Blight."
Comments: What the tooltip doesn't say is that, although the ranged version of this Power is slower, it also has a tooltip damage that is 45% more than that of the melee version. The melee version is a succession of four hits: 100%, 100%, 125%, 175% (of the tooltip value). Each of the first three hits adds a stack of Blight; the fourth hit adds two stacks, so one stack is wasted if you use all four hits on the same target. The ranged version is a succession of four hits: 100%, 85%, 100%, 125% (of the tooltip value, which is 45% more than the Melee value).
Blight reduces the damage the affected opponent(s) deals by 1-3% per stack, depending on the Rank of the Power.
- Hellish Rebuke: "A fiery rebuke that deals damage and ignites your target with hellfire. If they foolishly strike you after the rebuke, the hellfire's duration will be refreshed."
Comments: The tooltip damage is spread into 8 hits of a slow-burning DOT. The DOT is refreshed if you are hit by the monster that has the DOT.
- Dark One's Blessing: "Gain life whenever a target affected by your Warlock's Curse dies."
Comments: The base heal value is around 50% Weapon Damage.
- Prince of Hell: Increases your Armor Penetration stat by 10%.
Comments: Increases your Armor Penetration Rating by 10/15/20% (multiplicative). This does contribute to Gear Score.
- Killing Flames: "You use your target's suffering to fuel infernal flames around them. Damage increased based on the percentage of target's missing hit points, and killing your target with this power builds 25% more action points and spawns a Soul Puppet."
Comments: The listed tooltip damage shows the range from the damage resulting from the opponent having 100% of its HP remaining to the damage resulting from the opponent having 0% of its HP remaining. In other words, achieving the maximum essentially requires you to hit the opponent while it has 0.01% of its Health remaining. (So please don't read the tooltip and be like "OMGZORZ WARL0CK IS OP, NERF NERF NERF".)
- Infernal Spheres: "Summon an array of infernal spheres, each waiting to shoot out towards nearby enemies. Creates an additional sphere if you are under 75% Hit Points, or two additional spheres if under 50%.
Targets damaged by Infernal Spheres have a chance to ignite with a Lesser Curse.
Spheres will seek out foes who are within 30' of the Warlock."
Comments: The base number summoned is 3. At Rank 3, the base number summoned is 5. Each sphere attack gives its own Action Points upon damage, so ranking up also increases the number of Action Points generated by this Power.
The "chance to ignite" is fairly high.
- Pillar of Power: "Create a conduit of power at target location which erupts in a blaze of hellish flame if an enemy moves over it. The targeted location must gather power for at least two seconds before exploding.
Your other powers deal increased damage while you stand on the conduit of power."
Comments: This power requires a fairly length charge-up time in addition to the two-seconds-before-exploding wait time. The explosion damage is lackluster, so you'll likely use this (if at all) for its damage boost instead. The base damage boost is 12%, and Ranks 2 and 3 add 4% (additive) to this, making it a 20% boost to damage at Rank 3. The area lasts 15 seconds if it does not explode, at which time's ending the Power goes on cooldown. The Damnation Paragon Feat "Power of the Nine Hells" will allow you to extend the buff by 5 seconds if you are standing in the circle as its duration ends. Action Points are only rewarded on explosion.
- Dreadtheft: "You unleash a dark beam that lances through your enemies. This power will continue to fire for up to 6 seconds or until you release the button.
Curse Consume: Remove Curse effects from targets to temporaily increase the damage they take, and based on number of Curse targets hit, reduce incoming damage on yourself. (Max stack of 5)"
Comments: Does 25 hits (each of which can hit up to 5 enemies) over 6 seconds, then goes on cooldown. You can be interrupted while channeling this Power. You can move while channeling this Power.
The buff from Curse Consumption has a max stack of 5; the debuff does not stack and is a straight-up debuff.
What is interesting about this Power is its interaction with Warlock's Bargain (below). When this Power strikes an enemy with which you have Cursed with Warlock's Bargain, every hit of this Power will cause the buff to stack on you because Warlock's Bargain will not be consumed.
The buff value is to be 6/9/12% (additive) Damage Resistance per stack (for a maximum of 30/45/60% extra DR!). The debuff value is to be 10/15/20%.
- Warlock's Bargain: "You forge a link between an enemy's soul and your own, and then offer it to your dark patrons. You sacrifice 15% of your own health to steal life from your target over time. In addition, 15% of your incoming damage is redirected to your linked target. Warlock's Bargain is considered a Curse, but is not removed by powers that consume them."
Comments: This Power can kill you. If you use this Power while having less than 15% of your Maximum Hit Points, you will die. The self-damaging portion of the Power ignores your Damage Resistance. The interaction with Lifesteal is interesting. The self-damaging hit DOES count as damage that you do, so Lifesteal allows you to Lifesteal from yourself - in other words, having 10% Lifesteal will cause the hit to take 15% of your maximum HP and then restore 1.5% of it.
That having been said, this Power first damages the opponent for a small amount and then begins a 5-hit DoT that heals you for 25/37.5/50% of the damage done. The damage on the tooltip is the total damage dealt by the small first hit and the next five hits.
While the DoT is active on an opponent, your Damage Resistance is increased by an additive 15%. When you are hit, you will take the damage as mitigated by your Damage Resistance. This value is multiplied by 0.15/1.15 (3/23) and dealt to your opponent.
Example: You have 10% Damage Resistance, 10% Life Steal, and 20000 Hit Points. Activating Warlock's Bargain on Monster A deals 3000 Hit Points of damage to you; Health Steal will restore your Hit Points by 300. The DoT from Warlock's Bargain deals 1000 damage to Monster A and heals you for 500 damage; your Life Steal adds another 100. Monster A then hits you for 3000(4000) damage; the Warlock's Bargain Soul Link deals 391 damage (this value is subject to your Damage Resistance Ignored and Monster A's Damage Resistance) to Monster A. Monster B hits you for 300(400) damage; the Warlock's Bargain Soul Link deals 39 damage to Monster A.
Note that the Power description is incorrect; the Life Steal value actually increases by 12.5% per Rank, not 7.5%.
This Power currently gives no Action Points when used.
- Blades of Vanquished Armies: "You create a swarm of shadowy blades that circle around you, damaging nearby enemies.
Curse Synergy: Blades will periodically fling themselves at targets affected by your Warlock's Curse."
Comments: Does 11 hits over 6 seconds, then goes on cooldown. Does not give any Action Points. Concerning the Curse Synergy, "periodically" means twice per enemy per cast. In addition, the tooltip is misleading; your opponent does not have to be affected by Warlock's Curse for the Synergy to activate; any effect that counts as a Curse will work as well (e.g., Lesser Curse and Warlock's Bargain).
The "fling" will throw knives outside of the radius of this Power; the range of the "fling" is approximately 40 feet.
- Accursed Souls: "Draw in the souls of nearby enemies, Healing yourself and corrupting their spirits which you then force back into their bodies. Additionally, you spawn a Soul Puppet when you activate this power."
Comments: The damage from this Power is split into two hits, one in which you draw in the souls and the second in which you force them back. The first hit will heal you for half the damage dealt (Lifesteal will additionally apply), but only if the monster is NOT killed by this hit. The second hit is just a hit.
- Brood of Hadar: "You overwhelm your target with shadows, holding them in place while dark horrors rise around them. Nearby targets take reduced damage from this attack, and all affected are slowed and will be attacked by the spawned horrors."
Comments: Summons six "dark horrors" that attack once each.
- Flame of Phelgethos: "Liquid eldritch fire drips over your target, dealing damage over time. The intense heat deals 25% of its damage to nearby enemies. If main target is killed while affected by this power, they explode, applying Curse to nearby targets."
Comments: This Power is a very small AoE centered on a target. It deals its damage over 22 hits, 25% of which are dealt in an AoE to nearby enemies.
- Heroic - Soul Reaping: "Your Life Steal stat is increased by 1.5/3/4.5 per character level."
Comments: This does add to Gear Score.
- Damnation - Syphoning Curse: "When a Cursed target is killed, the slayer of the target is Healed for .4/.8/1.2/1.6/2% of your weapon damage."
Comments: The tooltip is wrong by a factor of 10. The slayer of the target is actually Healed for 4/8/12/16/20% of your weapon damage.
- Damnation - Warding Spirits: "While you have a Soul Puppet active you take 2/4/6/8/10% less damage."
Comments: This is multiplicative. For instance, if you have 10% Damage Resistance, you would take 90% damage without a Soul Puppet active and 88.2/86.4/84.6/82.8/81% damage with one active.
- Damnation - Ghastly Commander: "While you have a Soul Puppet active you deal 2/4/6/8/10% more damage and Life Steal for .4/.8/1.2/1.6/2% more."
Comments: The tooltip is wrong by a factor of 5 on the Life Steal portion. You Life Steal for (additively) 2/4/6/8/10% more.
- Damnation - Wrathful Souls: "Your Soul Puppets deal 20/40/60/80/100% more damage, and their attacks now Life Steal 3/6/9/12/15% of their damage, healing you."
Comments: This Feat is bugged; their attacks Life Steal for much, much less than the advertised value.
- Damnation - Soul Desecration: "Your Soul Puppet is now permanent and will not dissipate after 5 hits. Target's marked by Warlock's Curse are corrupted and will spawn a Soul Puppet when killed. Additionally, every 15 seconds, the next time you deal damage you summon a Soul Puppet."
Comments: Adds an effect called "Soul Desecration" that indicates when your next damage will summon a Soul Puppet.
Post edited by orodalf on
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Comments
It's very balanced in a very variance-heavy sort of way, I'd say.
Might want to put it in the Warlock Feedback thread found here, just to be safe!
No wonder i find Vampiric Embrace lacking. a EB chain will match it for damage, never mind the AOE and the lack of any cooldown...
Overpowered 60 CW ~ Thaumaturge 14.5k
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~ GF Buffs were great we are much better, please fix the bugs now... Thank you!