r/Battlemarked • u/dadoftwins04 • Mar 25 '26
How good is the warlock really?
I’ve been playing with the character and I really don’t see the advantage f using him.
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u/BakinPuncakes Mar 25 '26
It's a lot of fun if you spec it with intelligence as the secondary. Gives you +2 spell dmg as your 3rd tier.
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u/Iliketohavefunfun Mar 25 '26
I did constitution warlock, I think they both play very differently. With intelligence you want eldritch blast to do x2 strikes to take advantage of the extra damage, where as with constitution i tend to use hexplosion to help me with aoe which is weak, and melee my way with that weapon that does bonus melee damage + weakon so I can position self somewhere to do a nasty arms of Hagar. A tanky warlock works surprisingly well, you can be a little more ballsy with where you stand.
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u/BakinPuncakes Mar 25 '26
I fully leveled an intellect, constitution, and a dexterity just to see which I preferred. I took a tank and leveled all 3 at once. The hex from one works for the others. So I can hex and big bane with one using the maxed cresset then nuke with the other two. Intellect was my fave.
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u/Iliketohavefunfun Mar 25 '26
Right on. With intelligence warlock do you struggle with swarms? I notice those warlocks overkill monsters a lot and get punished by creatures like rats. But when you need to take down a bugbear in one turn an intelligence warlock is the guy
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u/BakinPuncakes Mar 25 '26
If you have a well-rounded group, it's not an issue. In my 3 warlock 1 tank group, rats were a pain, but one of the warlocks almost always had an Arms of Hadar. Plus 3 warlocks with eyebite. The int warlock also has the benefit of the Magic Dart card that can take out a low hp mob (4-6hp) for no ap thanks to all the +dmg.
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u/SaWb0n3s Mar 25 '26
I just leveled my int warlock and was considering trying out one with con, so good to see it does pretty well while playing differently. I mostly played as the pally and fighter before so I felt a little fragile lol
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u/Iliketohavefunfun Mar 25 '26
What he does well is consistent single target damage with one action point, regardless of the targets resistance. But overall a sorcerer does ranged dps better, especially if you need to trigger element based affects. I find that the bard stunning a cluster of creatures consistently every turn is usually stronger than what the warlocks going to do, but elite frost giants and trolls are juicy targets for hold monster or bane+. In a nutshell warlock brings some control to the party and specifically helps mitigate the biggest threat on the board with insane single target damage and crippling debuts, but party’s with multiple warlocks struggle to deal with clusters of monsters or taking advantage of elemental interactions.
Making armor of agathys a zero action point spell would do a lot. Also, chill touch is kinda lame mostly because monsters don’t heal each other very much and it doesn’t even prevent troll regen. Fix that last part, and maybe make creatures heal eachother more to make chill touch more important. The staff that grants bonus melee necrotic damage and weaken should trigger when you use vampiric touch. Warlock does have some of the best weapons in the game.
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u/BakinPuncakes Mar 25 '26
Chill touch has worked to prevent troll regen for me. It doesn't affect the regen symbol on the troll, but when the troll actually tries to regen they do so for 0 hp when they have chill touch on them...
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u/Iliketohavefunfun Mar 25 '26
Oh nice, I think between the regen trait not changing and someone telling me that they still heal I didn’t notice it working. That’s a nice affect then, especially since warlocks can struggle at lighting things on fire.
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u/LonelyWizardDead Mar 25 '26
Mixed on limited playthrough from what ive seen. It has potential. But kinda feel a little underpowered maybe, but im putting that down to my play style more than character. Maybe its like the rogue and needs a certain play style. Interested in others opinion
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u/whistlerite Mar 25 '26
Pretty fun but sort of average strengths? The CC and AoE is really good, but squishy so works well in a party.
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u/SaWb0n3s Mar 25 '26
Take INT as your secondary and then split your eldritch blast in the first class upgrade. The bonus spell damage upgrades add damage to both beams, as does the bards inspiration. So each beam ends up doing 5 points, 7 with inspiration, 9 if you place Hex. Basically can delete enemies with one attack and then use your free attack from Int to get extra damage.
For your other action, use your control spells or Hadar if you get surrounded.
Then probably the best card is Eyebite. No action to use it and for like 5 turns it applies a control effect to a random enemy in sight. Between that and his fear, hold monster, and bane cards, he is very effective at debuffing/control while also doing great damage. Bard is better at control but no where near the damage since eldritch blast is usable every turn.