The Cruel Seductress -- Silverspar's Guide to the DPS Temptation Warlock

Alright, I've been promising for a while to make one of these guides and here it is. My attempt at making that DPS Temptation Warlock guide. I am sure some people have already figured out ways to do it, and probably better than me, but this works for me. I will make no apologies or statements that I am a master PvPer, Dungeon Cleaner, or any of that non-sense, and I don't have an endless bank account to instantly get myself the best gear in the game or finish off my branch powers, so my viewpoints are those of a player still working up most of my paths and still trying to earn my gear.

Choosing Your Race
This of course will be left up to taste. The most optimal will of course be Tieflings as they were practically designed with the Warlock class in mind. Dragonborn and their free roaming ability scores are also useful. Humans probably round out that block with their extra feat points, but in the end it just boils down to what race you want to play, as optimal does not always mean most fun for you.

Ability Scores
This is probably going to be where the largest disagreement comes from when it concerns building your warlock. Me personally, I always try to balance these out. I currently have 21 CON, 20 INT and 21 CHA before prayer buffing. Why do I do this? As great as it might be to constantly have more damage from CON, having penetration from INT and Combat Advantage and Critical Hit from CHA are equally important, especially when utilizing one of the passives that is a feature of this class.

Let me explain why. CON just gives a flat damage increase, that's simple to understand and easy to look at. But our crowning passive, No Pity, No Mercy, gives us combat advantage every time we crit a target. That means every time we crit, and you should be steadily critting, our non-critting attacks are always getting Combat Advantage bonus. That means even at 20 CHA that's a 25% damage boost (15% base + 10% from CHA). That doesn't include critical bonus and severity included which is also more damage.

Powers to Use
This part is what I personally use, I encourage changing based on your preference. Remember you are a Temptation Warlock, not Fury, so some things, if you are use to Fury, do not operate the same way as they do when you are Temptation;

At-Wills Powers

• Eldritch Blast - In recent endeavors I find myself using Eldritch Blast more. The AE component is quite useful in packs and gives even more oomph for healing between cool downs.
• Hellish Rebuke - The debuff through the Temptation tree plus the added DoT effect makes this quite a handy little DPS boost and healing over time effect.

Passives

• No Pity, No Mercy - obvious why. If you are critting you are always receiving this which gives you combat advantage all the time.
• Flames of Empowerment* - Wild card passive. When I am soloing I use Flames of Empowerment because I have little need to use my daily. If you are lacking in Armor Penetration, Prince of Hell is also good. Other alternatives are Warding Curse for added protection for yourself or Shadow Walk. Dark One's Blessing sounds good but over all isn't that great in big team play.

Encounter Powers

• Dreadtheft - This is a no brainer. You have this as your constant DPS tool and ability to deliver out pain.
• Warlock's Bargain - Like Dreadtheft this is a no brainer. You use this just before Dreadtheft and it allows Dreadtheft to stack to five stacks quickly due to the fact that Warlock's Bargain is a unremovable curse.
• Blades of the Vanquished Army* - This is my wild card power. When I am fighting hordes of mobs I use this almost constantly. However, if you are uncomfortable being in melee, just like with Hand of Blight above, I suggest using Harrowstorm instead, similar effects just centered on a target of your choosing. Just be aware if the Harrowstorm target dies then the Harrowstorm ends, plus Harrowstorm has an added control effect you can make use of.
• Killing Flames* - This is my second wild card ability I swap out Blades for when I am fighting single target encounters. At first you might go, "isn't that only useful for Fury Warlocks" to which I say no. Killing Flames is very powerful as a single target ability, because as the targets health goes down, the damage of Killing Flames goes up. This means on boss fights you can start seeing some huge damage numbers pop up. It would not be unusual for you to see 30k+ normal hits or 50k+ critical hits or better with Killing Flames on boss fights.
• Fire Bolt* - I find myself using this more and more as my power, critical and severity go up. You can wipe out weak packs fairly quickly and even devastate large health mobs with this power. Your mileage may vary but don't discredit it.
• Vampiric Embrace* - When I find myself as the solo healer and a lot of unavoidable damage is typically being done in AEs, like fighting Valindra, I use vampiric embrace. The added defense is a god send in those type of fights, and always use a curse before for the bonus HP buff. You will be thankful and your party will thank you to. Hell I use this even when there is a cleric or another warlock present due to the simple fact the added defense is just that good in those situations.

Daily Powers

• Tyrannical Threat* - Depending on how you build this power will either be used a lot or just sparingly. Also will greatly depend on the party make up. TT is not good in all situations, like some will have you believe though. If you are fighting a solo boss or one with a few adds, this power is mostly a waste and something else should be used. Also note that with the hurt feelings about that this power is likely to get nerfed in the future. Alternatives for good AE are Accursed Souls because it has two big hits that also heal or Gates of Hell with a massive damage spike hit that also delivers in a massive heal with decent life steal.
• Flames of Phlegethos - I call this power Phlem because I am lazy and I just don't feel like trying to pronounce or spell the whole name. This is your best single target power for bosses and such. Use this is combination with a curse, warlock's bargain and dreadtheft and you will see magical numbers and a melting boss health bar quite quickly.

Feats
Heroic

• 4/5 Energizing Curse - Honestly I say stick with 2/5 and put the other points elsewhere more useful but if you are a TT mad person and believes TT is the end all be all of our DPS then 4/5 is what you want.
• 3/3 Weapon Mastery - Obvious for more critical
• 3/3 Empowered Rituals - Having harder hitting encounter powers is good to for our DPS.
• 5/5 Determined Casting or 2/5 Determined Casting 3/3 in Soul Reaping if uncomfortable with low Life-Stealing score.
• 2/5 Blood Pact of Cania - Give your CON a bit bigger boost.
• 3/3 Devastating Critical - To make our criticals have oomph of course.

Paragon

• 5/5 Critical Promise (Fury) - Because you are building to critical dealing more damage every time you deal a critical hit is actually pretty wise to have for that DPS.
• 5/5 Parting Blasphemy (Damnation) - One of the things about the build I use is I am always removing my curses, so why not make use of that and have it every time I remove the curse just deal more damage. Done deal.
• 5/5 Hope Stealer - Increasing your life steal might not seem all that important in late game but it is noticeable.
• 5/5 Hellish Condemnation - Makes Hellish Rebuke lower damage, great for those late game bosses that hit hard.
• 5/5 Aura of Despair - Aura that just automatically lowers enemy damage. You are a walking debuff.
• 5/5 Aura of Cruelty - Hey you just rose everyone's life steal. You are a walking buff to.
• 1/1 Soul Bonding - The power that confuses others, the ability to make us pump out huge green numbers and baffle clerics. With this you not only do DPS but you bring some relief to your clerics who are pulling their hair out constantly with team members running about instead of being where their useful healing and buffing abilities are.

Suggested Boons
Sharandar

• Dark Fey Hunter
• Fey Precision
• Elven Haste
• Elven Ferocity
• Elvish Fury

Dread Ring

• Reliquary Keeper's Strength
• Evoker's Thirst
• Forbidden Piercing
• Shadowtouch
• Endless Consumption

Icewind Dale

• Encroaching Tactics
• Refreshing Chill
• Rapid Thaw
• Cool Resolve
• Winter's Bounty

Tyranny of Dragons

• Dragon's Claws
• Dragon's Gaze
• Draconic Armorbreaker
• Dragon's Greed
• Dragon's Thirst or Dragon's Fury (for DPS you might want to go Dragon's Fury)*

Gear Suggestions

My suggestion for DPS laden healing gear is the Thayan Armor and Dread Legion set you get from the Dread Ring campaign. Dread Legion is like the perfect DPS healing combo as far as all of it goes. Supplement this with Fomorian Fabled Grimoire and Pact Blade from MC and consider offensive enchants with recovery in them as well to plug up the weak recovery hole in the set. Fill in the Ring, Waist and Cloak as seen fit and to taste. For defense health and or defense enchants would be ideal with utility being movement or the dragon hoard enchants you can get from the Tyranny of Dragon campaign.

As for PvP probably Bane's Profound Armor, but again I am no PvP expert in this game and tend to stick to other games for my PvP fun. Someone else will probably be able to answer the PvP questions.