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2 years ago ::
Oct 17, 2011 - 8:46PM
#31
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Date Joined:
Aug 18, 2002
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If you want to maximize your defender-like abilities, take Two-Fold Pact (Infernal), Shared Pact, and Bloodied Boon. Everytime a creature is bloodied or drops under your curse you can give temporary hit points to yourself or an ally  It's a heavy investment but worth it! Harliquinn
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2 years ago ::
Oct 17, 2011 - 10:07PM
#32
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Date Joined:
Jun 17, 2007
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Any particular reason why you're wielding a longsword? Is it just a temporary thing until paragon? Eldritch Blade is pretty good. But at paragon, Deft blade will be better - even if you lack the dexterity to pick up Nimble blade, surprising charge, mobile warrior, etc etc etc.
Because Deft Blade is a martial feat?
Ah yeah, that'll do it. Although it does make MC Fighter or Rogue rather tempting for any MBA oriented build, imo.
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2 years ago ::
Oct 18, 2011 - 1:48AM
#33
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Date Joined:
Jun 17, 2007
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For Feytouched, I think Bloodied Boon is probably a good idea, but not for the infernal pact boon. If you can spread around plenty of curses, you should be able to get Misty Step (and hence slashing wake, which is 1/turn) to trigger a fair bit out of turn (i.e. during your allies' turns).
I think it is almost worth yet another feat to get Twofold Curse, to spread around the curses even faster. If you can get your pact boon triggered every time an enemy is bloodied or dropped, that's up to 10 extra slashing wakes over the course of an encounter (I say "up to" because you will likely bloody or drop foes with your own attacks either on your turn or when your Aegis is triggered, and you'll be teleporting then anyway - when that happens your Misty Step won't grant an extra slashing wake). But I'm a bit torn. Is it worth the feat slot? You could pick up a rod of corruption, but that means losing one of your other weapon enchants (at least until you use the rod encounter power; you could swap it out after that). Either way; weapon or feat, it's a high cost. But it's worth considering anyway.
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2 years ago ::
Oct 18, 2011 - 7:57AM
#34
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Hmm, good suggestions. I haven't given Paragon a ton of thought yet, but I'll keep these in mind for when I'm approaching those levels. My biggest problem with Prime Shot and its various goodies is that it eats my Hybrid Talent feat (in addition to obviously being very resource-intensive and dependent on ally positioning). Without Swordmage Warding or Shadow Walk I feel like the character would be too squishy, which is jarring for being half Swordmage. I fully expect to take my fair share of attacks, especially since I won't always be able to run away from my mark to trigger Aegis of Assault. I was definitely considering Bloodied Boon, but I would be several levels into Paragon before picking it up. In theory it would double how often my pact boon triggers, in addition to recharging Fey Step earlier on (and front-loading Eladrin Swordmage Advance as much as possible). Packing as much damage into the first round or 2 is definitely a good thing! Twofold Curse would probably be a lower priority, if for no other reason than that it's more of a wild card. It's tough to say how many triggers I'd miss out on by not cursing a second enemy each round, but it would depend on many different variables (party focus-fire tactics, including use of AoE's vs single-target, monster HP, number of monsters, whether monsters are minions, elites, or solos, etc.). That said, having a cursed enemy "in reserve" starting from round 1 could definitely be advantageous, especially given the action economy of having to curse and mark, which could impair mobility (or, more likely, limited actions would prevent me from applying my Aegis). Another option I was thinking about was ditching the Mithrendain Steel Longsword once my teleports were sufficiently buffed through the Incisive Dagger (and other sources) and going with Frostcheese. That's obviously yet another 2 feats, and possibly some feats to admixture an Implement power or 2 (though this might be overkill given the amount of off-action Eldritch Strikes I'll get), and it'll result in more damage than either Bloodied Boon or Twofold Curse (and the damage would be more front-loaded to boot). But like I said, Paragon is still a ways away so I have plenty of time to think about it
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2 years ago ::
Oct 18, 2011 - 9:28AM
#35
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Date Joined:
Mar 22, 2008
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A note about bloodied boon:
1. Bloodied Boon is the only way (that I know of) to actually remove your warlock's curse from a target.
2. Rod of Starlight endows radiant vulnerability for a round when you curse a target. This is one of the only ways for an SM|Lock to grant radiant vuln himself (which matters if you go Radiant One).
3. You can't curse a target if you've already cursed it.
See where I'm going with this?
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2 years ago ::
Oct 18, 2011 - 1:34PM
#36
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Date Joined:
Aug 25, 2007
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A note about bloodied boon:
1. Bloodied Boon is the only way (that I know of) to actually remove your warlock's curse from a target.
2. Rod of Starlight endows radiant vulnerability for a round when you curse a target. This is one of the only ways for an SM|Lock to grant radiant vuln himself (which matters if you go Radiant One).
3. You can't curse a target if you've already cursed it.
See where I'm going with this?
Not necessarily very good for the Swordmage|Warlock hybrid specifically, but the Daily power of the Mercurial Rod also lets you remove your Curse in exchange for an extra 2 dice of Curse damage. A little more controllable than Bloodied Boon, but does require you to be using it as an implement, which is tricky if you're mostly a meleeist; the power doesn't explicitly require that the rod be used as an implement, but you'll need a way to wield it without losing your Swordmage Warding in order to invoke it.
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2 years ago ::
Oct 18, 2011 - 1:41PM
#37
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Battle harness armor, Fast Hands utility power and Quick Draw. That should be enough free action swaps to get the rod out, make your Warlock attack and then to swap back to the blade.
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2 years ago ::
Oct 18, 2011 - 1:47PM
#38
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Date Joined:
Jun 17, 2007
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Hmm, yeah, vulnerability is pretty key for the old slashy-slash. I wonder what would be better for an off-hand weapon, DPR-wise. Rod of Starlight or a Prime Shot dagger. 6 is clearly more than 3 but the 6 requires more work.
One issue that just struck me is how you'd go about reapplying your curse reliably after Bloodied Boon goes away? The main issue I'm concerned about is when somebody triggers bloody boon before the enemy's turn. You want your curse to be up during their turn for your aegis attack...
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2 years ago ::
Oct 18, 2011 - 2:53PM
#39
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Date Joined:
Jun 17, 2007
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Hmm, just wondering, could you use disembodied hand to draw, use, and stow a rod of corruption in response to your pact boon being triggered?
Could you do a similar trick with a Shadowrift blade?
I'm just not sure how the free action from disembodied hand works with triggered actions. After drawing the implement/weapon, is it too late to use the triggered property/power? Or does it work fine?
And how would you "fluff" a character with a few rods? I imagine it looking a little silly. But then, if you dissociated the fluff from the crunch a little, it might be less of a big deal. E.g. maybe the rakshasa claw curses things for you with the rod or slashes people with your Prime Shot dagger while you're both teleporting around (even though it's technically in passive mode). None of this silly item-juggling!
Oh, and in case you're wondering, the reason some of my suggestions may be a little infeasible is that I'm also brainstorming for a permahidden Executioner|warlock build that uses one of the slashing PPs. My build and Alien's have quite a lot in common but there are still some differences, and some of the ideas I had for my build may not port unproblematically into his (i.e. deft blade).
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2 years ago ::
Oct 18, 2011 - 9:34PM
#40
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Unless they require interrupting in order to work, Free Actions are reactions, the best way I've found to do it, is to draw the rod of corruption when an ally starts their turn, and stow after the turn (you'd be amazed how often things go bloodied on their own turn though, silly interrupts).
"Invokers are probably better round after round but Wizard dailies are devastating. Actually, devastating is too light a word. Wizard daily powers are soul crushing, encounter ending, havoc causing pieces of awesome." -AirPower25 Sear the Flesh, Purify the Soul; Harden the Heart, and Improve the Mind; Born of Blood, but Forged by Fire; The MECH warrior reaches perfection. My Guides
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