THE STONELOCK HELLBRINGER BUILD
‘StoneR’@stonerw
GENERAL BACKGROUND
I’ve played SW since MOD 13. In that time, Warlocks have gone from one of the best healers + dps (in the same build during MOD 14) to not-so-great. Since MOD 20, fixes to broken (in the negative sense) warlock powers have made us a relevant DPS again. That said, I have mained rogue, ranger, wizard, paladin, and warlock over that time. I’m not ashamed to admit that I have switched my focus in the game to the class that was most fun to play during any given mod.
The Warlock DPS is very much based on damage over time (DoT). We do lots of little tics of damage over time, so we really shine most in long fights, whether tough to kill mobs or boss fights. Where mobs die quickly, rogues and fighters often beat us to the punch. But, when we can set up a steady slow burn, we often rise to the top of DPS charts. The key to contributing to the overall dps of the group is to know the team and adjusting your build accordingly.
In the following, I set up a single DPS build and two slightly different AOE builds. I do not heal on Warlock, so look elsewhere for those builds. First, I present items that all builds hold in common.
Race
Your choice: there are many viable races. I use Gith for the 5% Combat Advantage (CA). SW has a very hard time getting CA to 90% and every little bit counts.
Ability Scores
We generally want intelligence for the bonus cto magical damage and charisma for the boost to forte and recharge. Dexterity is potentially interesting because of the crit severity boost and movement speed, but crit severity is easily capped with potions …. aaand you should just get used to being slow. You don’t want to get out ahead of your tank anyway. The other ability scores just don’t make sense for hellbringer.
General Rating and Gear Preferences
The most important ratings to cap are Power, Critical Chance, and Critical Severity. Note that our Forte gives us Power and Critical Strike, so you should get Forte as high as possible. Next in line to build up is Combat Advantage as both the AoE and ST builds should have near 100% up time. I am at around 60-62% Forte.
Ideally, you want four offensive stats capped at 90%. That can be tough. I am close (4% short) with Neverwinter Knight, Batiri, and Minsc for ST. AoE is easier because you don’t use Batiri. It is a puzzle and I can’t possibly give you a single path. You must consider gear, boons, comps, insignias, and mount bonuses. Change one piece of gear and you will spend the next 3 days balancing stats.
SINGLE TARGET BUILD
Buffed and Proc’d
Head: I use the Helm of the Skyblazer from the T3 hunt in Avernus to get close to 90% in power, Combat Advantage, Critical Strike, and Critical Severity (see proc stats above). I can easily hit 90%, currently missing 4%, but I want to use damage comps. In VOS, you could use Forest Guardian helm for the 5% damage. Before Skyblazer, I used Whisper Hood of Quiet.
Chest: Bone Devil’s Ribcage is imperative for my build to max crit and crit severity. If you don’t have it, farm Midnight Cuirass from first miniboss in VoS HC.
Arms: Again, this depends on the stats you need. For power, use Wristguards of Precipitation. I use Spiked Defender Vambrace because I don’t need power and it gives 5% damage most of the time.
Weapons: Mirage still does best ST damage for us, in my experience. Don’t have it and don’t want to grind? Use Golden Watcher Set or Lionheart. I never used Celestial so I can’t speak for it. Masterwork Weapons are also good if the entire group is using it, but with other options, you can’t count on that anytime soon.
Feet: Unless you need to be very mobile and use your stamina a lot on bosses, you can use the Forest Guardian Raid Shoes for 7500 combat advantage. The Wasteland Wanderers give 5% CA within 25’ of target and are better if you can cap CA ratings using other means. If you can cap Combat Advantage without boots (hard but possible), slip back into the Rusted Iron Leggings for straight damage.
Neck and Waist Set: I don’t see anything comparable to Demo at this time, and you can grind it pretty easily. Some like Magicbox Set. Outdated, but viable alternatives are Vault of Stars Set Lostmauth Set.
Rings: I’ve tried a few combinations. If you have it, Band of Air is a must. For the second, I use The Red Eye’s Glarebecause it grants you a total of 7.5% stats. That said, you can easily get power, and accuracy is the least important offensive stat right now. The other benefit of that ring is 4500 crit severity. There are many VoS rings that can be swapped in. The Queen’s Golden Sky Ring is good. Or use The Red Eye’s Blind for ranged damage boost and 4500 accuracy.
Shirt and Pants: Use whatever you need for stats. For pants, I still use Velvet Trousers or Velvet Pants because they give offensive stats.
Artifacts: Active you typically want to use DemoReach for damage boost (they currently stack) or Envenomed Journalfor AP gain. You could also use any other debuff that helps the group. The other artis should either be two more journals for the Lostmauth bonus or go Jewel of the North and Neverwinter standard for the IL boost, which also boosts your base damage. Damage is pretty close recorded with ACT on a dummy, and going high IL boosts your HP.
Enchantments: Use 3-stat enchants because they give you, overall, more stats than the one- or two-stat enchants. The exception is when you need to raise one specific rating by a lot. In general, just use the enchants you need to get your stats to cap. I am using a mix of Assassins, Demonic, Gigantic and Draconic on offense. On defense, I use whatever I have left over, but defense and HP probably best. We naturally have awareness from Forte, so that is also easy to build up a little.
Utility slots should go for either Forte (Dark Enchantment) or a variety of enchants that give you movement (Silvery gives the most).
Armour Enchantment: I am using Barkshield. Other viable alternatives are Negation if you spend a lot of time in the middle of mobs; Elven Battle or Eclipse if you rely a lot on Shadow Slip to dodge attacks. Since you won’t be the focus of the boss agro usually, Barkshield is probably the best to absorb periodic damage, like in TOMM.
Weapon Enchantment: Bilethorn is still the best because it procs on most of our little tics of DoT damage. We can easily cap critical strike and severity, so Vorpal makes little sense. I haven’t tried many others for ST lately.
POWERS
At Wills: Hellish Rebuke (HR) for the DoT damage. I have tested melee Hand of Blight (HoB) to do more damage on a dummy, but it is awkward that it goes in and out of melee mode and sometimes you want to attack from a distance. The ranged version of this at-will sucks. One benefit of HoB is that the melee version generates soul sparks like mad. Having it as secondary at-will makes sense in some contexts. Otherwise, I use Dark Helix spiral for bosses that spawn mobs. When fully charged, it does a lot of damage.
Encounters: Hellfire Ring applies curses and gives you instant 5 stacks of Soul Investiture with the Power of Nine Hells feat. Blades of Vanquished Armeis (BoVA) also is a must in most contexts. It does more damage than HfR in a straight comparison, but BoVA does not apply curse, so you miss damage from the class feature, Deadly Curse. I don’t think HfR is supposed to apply curse, but it does (shhhhh). The final, and indispensable, encounter is Killing Flames. It will always be #1or #2 in your damage.
Dailies: Gotta use Tyrannical Curse (TC) because of its damage and debuff. Soul Siphon (SS) does more damage compared directly, but it does not buff or debuff.
Class Features: All-Consuming Curse (ACC) and Deadly Curse (DC) work together for obvious reasons. Hellish Rebuke and Hellfire Ring do DoT damage that continuously applies curse. You get 25 damage for each tic. Some suggest using Dust to Dust for 5% damage and No Pity, No Mercy. This used to be the go-to, but it doesn’t do as much damage.
Feats: BBTTT
First Pair: You want Power of the Nine Hells to build Soul Investiture quickly (a single HfR will drive you up to 5 stacks almost immediately when Soul Puppet hits). I’ve tried Double Scorch with ACT logs and could never get damage up as high without the instant building of Soul Investiture.
Second Pair: Warlock’s Curse 12% more damage vs cursed targets and pretty much everything you hit has a curse on it. You don’t want Parting Blasphemy because you don’t have any curse consume powers if you follow the above.
Third Pair: Soul Investiture for reasons described above and with the first feat you will have perma-Soul Puppet.
Fourth Pair: Executioner's Gift seems to provide a greater boost to DPS on long boss fights"
Fifth Pair: Soul Spark Recovery keeps the encounters coming back quickly. So does Wrathful Souls, but that feat is tied to the slow attacking rate of your soul puppet and if it does you lose that bonus for a short time. Plus, Soul Sparks do damage.
Rotation: Hellish Rebuke x 2-3 --> Hellfire Ring [by this point you have full Soul Investiture and have applied curse] --> BoVA --> Artifact à Tyrannical Curse à Killing Flames --> Mount (TV or Toad) --> Hellish Rebuke until you have 2-3 soul sparks --> Soul Spark --> Repeat.
NOTE: After the first rotation always cast KF as soon as it comes up. Also, only use soul sparks when all encounters have at least 3-4 seconds cooldown on them. Otherwise, it’s a waste of the recovery time.
NOTE: I cast Hellish Rebuke continuously, but burst only really needs it in the two critical places named above. Other Warlocks often have HR damage higher than mine. I think I could probably be better about using it more often, but in the burst damage phases of any boss, you want to make sure your most damaging powers land before the buffs wear off.
BOONS
Take the guild boons that you need to get your stats right. You will need to mix and match considering all of your gear, enchants, comps, and mount insignias. You will want the Revive Sickness utility for ST. For general content, you might want to switch to mount movement.
For Campaign Boon, fill all offense slots, HP and Defense. Also take movement speed. For Tier 5. I go Recharge and Forte, but there are other options depending on your build. Master Boon, I go Blood Lust, but there are special occasions that you might want to use another. On SW, it’s probably best to stick with Master Boons that proc on encounter or at-will powers, not those keyed to health or kills. For Aoe, maybe Deathly Rage would be good for Combat Advantage if you can’t max it otherwise.
COMPANIONS
Companion Boost: I use Minsc, Batiri, and Neverwinter Knight for damage bonus and any other two comps for stats you need. I am currently using Black Dragon Ioun stone for crit, and Golden Cat for combat advantage. Look at the comps on pocket wiki for other combos. Staldorf is another viable one if you want to max CA. Again, you just need to mix and match what stats you need.
Companion Enhancement: I need combat advantage so I use Acute Senses. You might need something else.
Active Companion: I’ve tested many, but have used Honey Badger and Githyanki for ST. Both do more dps than Pseudodragon. Gith does more damage than HB because the latter is dependent on staying with over 80% health. Given the constant nerf rotation, I won’t advocate for any one active comp.
Companion Gear: This might change in the very near future, but try to use the high IL comp gear (1300 IL) from Sharandar hunts. I use 6x Indomitable Runestones to max damage of companion.
MOUNTS
Insignias: Again, use what you need for stats, but I favor to have at least 60% Forte on dps. Dominance insignias are the only ones that give Forte and they also give power. If you use more power gear than I do, you might not need the extra power and might be better off filling up Accuracy and Combat Advantage here.
Mount Collars: Kind of limited here, but use ones that add percentages to offensive power or your stats. You have 3 slots that do this, in the 4th, I use one that gives a movement bonus. I leave the fifth open because why make it harder to max your stats only to get a gold bonus? Though, if you can add the 5th collar and still hit your targets, go for it. The increase in IL will increase you base damage.
Mount Bonuses: 2 or 3 x Warlord’s Inspiration for the bonus damage for summoned companion. 2x Gladiator’s Guild for speed and stamina. 1x Assassin’s Covenant for bonus offensive stats. Tweak the numbers or add others depending on your situation.
Mount Power: Tunel Vision or Giant Toad for the damage. With tank and heals and a range of good arti debuffs, DPS should go damage unless a specific situation calls for damage mitigation or debuffs.
Equip Power: use whatever stat you need. I am using Opportunistic.
AOE BUILD #1 : FASTER MOB BLAST
This build is for mobs that die fast. Personally, I like to play my second AOE build below better, but that one takes time to develop the full rotation so use this one if mobs seem to melt too fast in a group.
I will only discuss the changes from the ST build above modified for AOE. If it isn’t discussed here, assume that all is the same as above.
GEAR
Head: Since comps can be adjusted here because you will not slot Batiri, you can easily make up the combat advantage lost from the Helm of the Skyblazer on the comp page. Slot either region-specific damage helm or Whisper’s Hood of Quiet for added accuracy.
Weapons: Mirage is not good on AoE, for instant damage bonus use Lion Heart.
Weapon Enchantment: Lightening arcs to cause damage to mobs, so it is better than Bilethorn here.
POWERS
At wills: You want either Hellish Rebuke (HR) or Eldritch Blast (ER) as your main. HR does a lot of damage, but it you use it for mobs that die fast you want to slot the No Pity, No Mercy (NPNM) class feature. That both gives you 100% up time on combat advantage and deals all HR damage instantaneously. ER casts faster and the third hit does AoE damage, something that HR does not do. When using the class feature All Consuming Curse, the AoE at will can be a good option to spread the curse to rip with CB. I use HB, but most of your mob damage is done by encounters and dailies, so it doesn’t make a huge difference.
Encounters: Hellfire Ring and Fiery Bolt apply curse and do AoE damage. They also do damage instantly, Fiery Bolt does damage instantly, which is better if mobs die fast. You could use Blades of the Vanquished Armies but if it casts on yourself and you are far from mobs that is lost damage. If you use BOVA cast on the tank. Always have Killing Flames and aim it at the toughest enemy.
Dailies: Gotta use Soul Siphon (SS), and use it on mobs that are full health because there is a delay in the damage. Tyrannical Curse (TC) also radiates damage out to mobs, but it’s a slow burn. I use TC for bosses that spawn mobs, like Boss 1 in VoS or the minibosses in HC VoS. Hit the boss with TC and the damage will radiate out to the mobs that spawn. Hellfire Gate can do a lot of damage, but aiming it against mobile mobs run the risk of missing them entirely.
Class Features: You must use No Pity No Mercy to get the 100% combat advantage uptime, and the best build will cap CA at 90%. The second feature is more flexible. I use All-Consuming Curse (ACC) to apply curse if mobs don’t die after the first full rotation or to hit the second mob that spawns in skirmishes like the platforms in the maze of VoS. Or use Dust-to-Dust for the added damage, or Shadow Walk if you need more mobility to avoid red areas.
Feats: BBTBT. The only change is to omit Creeping Death because it will not do its damage if targets die quickly.
COMPANIONS
Taking out Batiri gives you some flexibility to add some stats. I use Regis as active as he seems to top the Comp list on ACT logs for AoE. Some mobs he tops even the players.
ROTATION
Begin with a HFR under the mob, shift cancel animation after about half second into cast, or press directly into Fiery Bolt. Then Killing flames for the enemy with the most remaining HP. I use Pegasus as active mount, but I don’t always use it in any particular order. Sometimes I will cast HFR and hit Pegasus, then Fiery Bolt. When daily is up, I’ll cast HFR then Soul Siphon then finish up with Fiery Bolt. On big mobs, I pop Demo in the middle sometimes. In other words, there are many combinations you can use to decimate mobs. You should experiment with timings considering encounters, dailies, mounts and artifacts and always leave one big power in reserve. Most mobs don’t call for arti, mount, daily, + encounters. That’s overkill. So keep some powder dry for the next mob. Remember to cast Soul Spark and Dark Helix when they are charged. Soul Spark will keep the encounters coming back.
AOE BUILD # 2: CURSE BITE DETONATOR
OK, so I love this build, it’s my favorite to play on SW and one of my favorites in Neverwinter. It involves cursing a mob with Hellfire Ring (HFR) or Fiery Bolt (FB) (note: BoVA does not apply curse) and immediately hitting Curse Bite (CB), which rips the curse out of them doing a ton of damage. Think of your at wills, FB, and HFR as setting the bomb and CB as the detonator. With two charges of CB and two powers that apply curse to mobs, you can really decimate them.
The drawback of this build is it doesn’t hit fast, and if you are running with a TR or Fighter DPS in a dungeon where mobs die fast, you will find that you are only finishing the last 10% of HP of mobs with CB and your damage will lag behind the melee dps. It is a viable build in dungeons with mobs that are tough to kill, like BHEs or VOS boss 1.
Again, only differences from the builds above are featured here:
Encounters: Hellfire Ring and Fiery Bolt apply curse, and those are necessary for this build. BOVA does not apply curse. Obviously, Curse Bite is also a must for this build. There really isn’t any alternative.
Dailies: Soul Siphon (SS), like described above but you should also know that it applies curse that can be ripped out using Curse Bite.
Class Features: NPNM for the 100% combat advantage uptime, and All-Consuming Curse (ACC) to apply curse using at-wills.
ROTATION
HFR under fresh mob --> Curse Bite --> Fiery Bolt --> Curse Bite --> at wills till all dead. Conditional twists: if your daily is up, HFR (under where mob will spawn or just go straight to Soul Siphon) --> Soul Siphon --> CB = all dead. Save your mount and artifact powers for the biggest mob spawns, like flower phase on platforms in VoS. With AoE, there are variable situations and you just need to know the dungeon well to know when to use mount and arti.
The key to this build is CB has two charges, so you can apply and rip curse twice in one rotation. It is for mobs that do not die easily.
If any questions concerning the builds - @stonerw (in-game)
GLHF,
StoneR
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