Cottontail

To be totally honest. Chain lightning really started falling behind after the new warlock changes. Its probably better to go with reading spellbook and spam spells. I've also geared up and been playing ranger now. I will fiddle around with warlock again once EDDA biolabs is out and I grab a new weapon there.

The failure rates combined with trying to get what you want is a little brutal. Imagine just grinding for 4 hours, then bringing a whole stack of unknown parts to the NPC with a big smile on your face and then watching the NPC go "oops clumsy me" multiple times. One by one your will breaks along with the modules and then finally you get a success but its not the one you want. Sure you can try and sell it but the majority of the people will want atk or matk modules and the others won't sell for anything. I guess you can argue if someone gets lucky they can make an insane amount of money. If it was something like spend an insane amount to make the one you want with 100% success most people wouldn't really care because you can see yourself go towards a goal. (like edda biolab weapon enchant has a 5000 enchant that lets you choose the one you want.) Seeing stuff fail with no idea when you'll finally succeed is just disheartening. 

Chain Lightning Warlock Guide

I have noticed a severe lack of warlocks on this server and I hope to change the mind of everyone around.

All About Warlocks

First off, what is a warlock? A warlock is the third job of the magician class following the wizard line. It specializes in a wide variety of offensive magic of almost every element along with a plethora of AoE skills. They also boast the strongest self sustain in the game with an infinite supply of SP and easy healing though drain life along with gear that can help them tank even the hardest content with ease. Warlocks however aren't popular compared to the Oboro or Adoramus Archbishops for several reasons. The biggest reason is the amount of gear required for a warlock is much more expensive than the previous two mentioned classes. The chain lightning build has a lot of requirements with very few flex slots. I wouldn't recommend going chain lightning warlock as your first character unless you are borrowing someone else's wealth. We'll get into the gear later. The second reason is without insane MVP cards the damage is just nowhere near the damage the other two casters can push out, especially when spell critical is involved. Warlocks don't have the luxury to stack spell critical as we're too busy getting after cast delay reduction. If you want big damage this isn't the class for you. If you want to be an immortal tank that shoots magic at everything then read on.

 

Making A New Warlock

Note: This is for 100x rates. If you are doing 1x rates then you should be doing bounties and gramps and there is probably a whole other guide for that so read that instead.

Step one. Go into character creation and make a new character. If you're having issues at this point this class is too hard for you.

After getting your first character its time to level. There are two main ways to level up as a mage. The first and simplest way is to just learn firebolt and burn some plant monsters. Muscupilar and Drosera are easy targets. These monsters don't move and can only sit there and take your firebolts to the face. Another way is to take advantage of a very powerful mage spell called firewall. Against normal enemies it will deal damage and knock them back giving you a buffer to bombard them with firebolts to the face. However against undeads (and bosses) they will walk though them taking all the hits instantly. In this case the way to level is not to cast a wall normally in between you and the enemy, but by utilizing vertical firewalls you can force them to take the entire firewall damage and kill them at incredible speeds. Glasthiem monsters are a good place to level with this strategy.

After getting to wizard you'll notice that you suddenly have a lot of AoEs but at the same time they are incredibly slow and almost impossible to use. You don't have the int/dex to use them currently. Don't worry about those skills because you'll never cast them. Follow the same way you've been leveling as a mage and continue on until you become a warlock.

As a warlock you suddenly have a variety of good attacks to choose from. You will notice that the cast time for warlock spells are fairly short compared to wizards but come with long cooldowns. Crimson Rock will be your primary AoE while Chain Lightning will be your go to single target ability. Just follow the standard Infinite Dungeon at 100, Airship at 125, Charlston at 130. You should hit 100-175 within 10 minutes. After 175 your main way of leveling will be through MVPs or Illusion Dungeons.

Variable Cast Time

Cast time is the amount of time it takes for your spell to finish channeling before going off. During this time you can be interrupted by damage. However you may have noticed no matter how much int/dex you add, the cast times remain relatively long. Thats because most warlock skills have a fixed cast time that works independently on how variable cast time works. We will get into that later. The formula to reach instant variable cast time is a total of 530 int/dex with dex adding twice as much per int. There are also gear that reduces variable cast time by a percentage but the reduction is multiplicative to your stat cast time. In other words, you should only focus on one rather than both. Percentage reduction is fairly common and to reach instant cast requires an obvious 100%. Reaching 530 stats is harder but more ideal because it opens up your gear.

 

Fixed Cast Time

Fixed cast time is harder to reduce as there is a very limited amount of fixed cast time reduction. Flat reduction stacks multiplicatively with percentage however it will only take the highest percentage of fixed cast time. A Fenrir card does not stack with a Celine's Set to give 100% fixed cast reduction as the 70% from fenrir will overwrite the 50% from Celine's Set. Therefore to reach true instant cast, you must reach a flat fixed cast time of at least 1 second. The most common source of flat reduction are temporal dex boots, garment stoness, and a variety of headgears. 

 

After Cast Delay

The bane of all warlocks. After cast delay is the amount of time it takes for one skill to finish before you are able to cast another skill. So the more reduction you get the better it is. If you ever get to a point where you have to choose between more or enough the answer is always more. This however shouldn't be confused with animation delay that is based on your attack speed. Until you get to the point where you have enough after cast delay reduction, attack speed isn't a big issue. Once you do though, you want to get as much attack speed as you can. Note: Warlocks can use infinite berserk potions for a big aspd boost.

 

Main Skills

Chain Lightning - 5.5 second variable cast time. 1 second fixed cast time. 3 second after cast delay. Wind element. This is your main single target attack. It bounces a maximum of 9 times but is halved when there is only one target. More than one chain can be active at a time so after cast delay reduction won't hinder you at all. Ideal damage is when hitting two targets for full damage.

Crimson Rock - 5 second variable cast time. 1 second fixed cast time. 2 second after cast delay. 5 second cooldown. 7x7 AoE. Fire element. This is your main AoE attack. Fast casting and decent AoE with a short cooldown. The cooldown can be further reduced by Old Magic Stone Hat, which happens to be your best in slot hat. The damage can be further increased with True Kathryne Keyron cards with upwards to 60% damage increase per card on a level 4 weapon. A valkyrie knife has 4 sockets and is a level 4 making it the ideal weapon swap for crimson rock. The cooldown can also be bypassed entirely with reading spellbook. At max level, you can cast a maximum of 7 crimson rocks without cooldown.

Earth Strain - 6 second variable cast time. 2 second fixed cast time. 1 second after cast delay. 10 second cooldown. 15x9 AoE. Earth element. This is your secondary AoE attack. Because of its long fixed cast and low damage this skill is not used very often. Its added damage if crimson rock isn't enough or you need to cover a large area.

Jack Frost - 4 second variable cast time. 1 second fixed cast time. 1 second after cast delay. 19x19 AoE. Water element. This is your main farming skill. A single click will completely wipe out everything on screen and make you one of the fastest farmers in the game. With its low delay and no cooldown you can spam this all day long.

Soul Expansion - 2 second variable cast time. 0.5 second after cast delay. 5x5 AoE. Ghost element. This is your secondary single target attack. Its a low damage fast spamming skill. This skill gets weaker as you get more after cast delay compared to chain lightning. Damage can be further increased with Intensification. Upwards to 200% bonus damage. Mainly used against wind targets or finishing off weak enemies.

Drain Life - 4 second variable cast time. 1 second fixed cast time. 2 second cooldown. Neutral element. Your sustain skill. A high damage neutral damage attack that heals you for 30% of the damage dealt. With enough damage this will fully heal you with a single click. Upwards of 100k heal per cast. This is also used to kill holy enemies immune to elemental magic.

 

Gearing

Warlock gearing is very strict with very few flex slots. There are three mandatory items for this build to function and others are best in slot with no alternatives.

 

The Mandatory

Survivor's Rod - While this weapon itself doesn't bring a lot of base Matk or have many sockets, or even a high weapon level. It is a needed piece for the other survivor gear to function. Its the easiest of the three pieces to get as it drops 100% of the time off Kiel D.

Survivor Shoes - This item along with the rod will give you very powerful buffs. The first one is obvious, the 50% Mdef piercing, which cominbed with a magician's glove will give you full magic defense pierce. This will greatly boost your damage against anything with reasonable amounts of Mdef. The second one is the chain lightning damage. The last one which is often easily forgotten is the 80% neutral magic damage increase. What neutral magic is there even? Easy, drain life. When combined with with a warlock shadow weapon drain life because a big hard hitting spell and heal you up instantly. This item is challenging to get as it only drops in fortessa pit 2f making this one of the hardest items to acquire as a new warlock.

Cloak of Survival - The item on divine pride doesn't show the full stats. When combined with the rest of the survivor set will give a decent amount of Matk% as well as a huge amount of survival hence the name of the set. With the huge amount of resistances along with an open shield slot and massive healing from drain life, you are in no fear of anything in the game. The base item is a survival manteau dropped by Ktullanux. While the quest is annoying to do, it has a guaranteed spawn in endless cellar and is easier to find it there. Once you have the manteau take it to the socket NPC and punch a hole.

Survivor Orb - This is probably the most offensive of all the survivor items. It adds a plethora of effects when used in combination with the rest of the set, mainly the massive flat matk and chain lightning damage%. The other stuff isn't anything to sneeze at either but the biggest unfortunate gripe is the difficulty for this piece is astronomical compared to the other three. This item requires 5 Naught Seiger fragments to exchange a regular survivor orb into the alternate version (this one, the good one.) This requires running Endless Tower on hell difficulty for 15% chance (non boostable from 1x drop bonus or bubble gum) to get a fragment from the final boss. Having to go through green aura MVPs with 90% reduction stacked with hell difficulty's 70% reduction on a 3 day cooldown. 

 

Other Gear

I will go though the slots for potential gear to use.

Weapon

Survivor Rod - 120 Matk. Weapon Level 3. 1 socket. (mandatory)

Sunflower Boy - 320 Matk. Weapon Level 4. 2 socket. Matk% and after cast delay reduction per upgrade. 2 handed. (Use until you have survivor set)

Crimson Rod - 70 Matk. Weapon level 3. 2 socket. Matk per upgrade. (leveling weapon)

Shield

Mad Bunny - Matk% and uninterruptable at +12 (Best offensive shield)

Immune Shield - Neutral% resistance and elemental resistance (Best defensive shield)

Purified Knight's Shield - Good stats and enchantable

Armour

Flattery Robe - 150 matk at +12 along with combo with cloak of survival. Can be enchanted for even more matk% (best in slot)

Sea Dragon Armour - -10% variable cast, 20% boss damage (early game item until flattery)

Medical Scrubs - Big defense, increased healing recieved, -10% after cast delay (if you are tanking)

Garment

Cloak of Survival - Read above (mandatory)

Fallen Angel Wings - 3 spell enchants for decent Matk and -30% variable cast time (until you get survivor set)

Boots

Survivor Shoes - Read above (mandatory)

Temporal Shoes (dex) - -0.5 second fixed cast (until you get survivor set)

Headgear

Old Magic Stone Hat - Magic essence enchant gives you -0.5 fixed cast at level 5 along with Matk% (best in slot)

Celine's Ribbon - Big Matk, set with Celine's brooch (best in slot until you need fixed cast time)

Spell Circuit - -0.5 fixed cast time at +15 (too expensive for its use)

Kardui Ear + Tree Sprout - Bunch of Matk

Survivor Orb - Highest damage (best in slot)

New Wave Sunglasses - -10% after cast delay

Cyclops Eye - Cheap slotted midwear (if you have some good cards)

 

Accessories

Magician's Glove - 50% Mdef pierce (best in slot)

Celine's Brooch - 50% boss damage and stats

Spirit King's Ring - -5% after cast delay

Blacksmith Gloves - -10% after cast delay

White and Blaze Magic Ring - -15% after cast delay on right slot

Cards

I'm not going to bother mentioning MVP cards as they're almost always best in slot and extremely overpowered.

Weapon

Immortal Wind Ghost - 10% Matk (usable everywhere)

Colourful Teddybear - 15% Matk to large

Soul Fragment - 15% Matk to medium

Shield

Alice - 40% boss reduction -40% normal reduction (normal monsters don't hurt you enough to not use this all the time)

Khlatizburg Knight - 25% large/medium reduction (if normal monsters hurt too much)

Armour

Angeling - Holy element (most useful)

Bathory - Dark element (fortessa pit)

Marc - Freeze immunity

Evil druid - Undead element (only use when solo)

Garment

Nightmare Ancient Mummy - 15% neutral resist 3% fire damage per refine (recommended only because no wind alternative)

Raydric - 20% neutral resistance (only if you need more survival)

Marsh Arclouse - Matk and Aspd (full offensive)

Boots

Nightmare Verit - 10% matk (offensive)

Green Ferus - 10% hp (defensive)

Headgear

Tikbalang - 10% wind damage (best element)

Red Lichtern - 10% fire damage (crimson rock)

Kathryne Keyron - Variable cast time reduction (only if you are forgoing dex)

Accessories

Elvira - 20% wind/ghost damage (best in slot)

Mavka - 20% fire/earth damage

 

Shadow Gear/Costumes

Shadow gear are a second set of gear you can wear which all give powerful stats. Costumes are items with custom bonuses unique to this server. The three stats you want on costumes are as follows.

Flat HP on upper always. Flat Matk or Matk% on middle and After cast delay on lower. Flat Matk and Matk% are interchangeable with flat Matk being slightly stronger because of all the Matk% items you have on your gear. If you are unsatisfied and want to see it for yourself, use @battlestats in game.

Reload stone for -5% after cast delay

Fixed cast time garment stone for -0.5 fixed cast time

 

Reload Set - With +9 on all 3 pieces gives a total of -15% after cast delay (best in slot)

Warlock Shadow weapon - Good drain life damage for damage/sustain (highly useful)

Almighty Set - +1 stats per refine (best in slot)

 

FAQ

Q. Stat or Variable instant cast?

A. Stats. There isn't enough variable cast time for instant cast without giving up other pieces of gear such as costumes and armour. Stats however requires food investment.

 

Q. Do I add luk? Crit?

A. No. There isn't enough free slots or stats to add crit. Unless you have something like an Infinite Phreeoni Card, you're not going to reach 100% crit without some serious investment which will cause your other stats to suffer.

 

Q. Celine Set or fixed cast hats?

A. Depends on your after cast delay reduction. Without after cast delay reduction Celine set will do more damage overall. Once you have after cast delay reduction and can chain casts back to back, instant cast is mandatory.

 

Q. What are the best MVP cards to look for?

A. Gioia, Kiel D, Nightmare Amon Ra. 

 

Q. Why are wind damage cards so hard to get?

A. Gravity are a bunch of warlock hating jerks.

 

Videos

Fortessa Dungeon

 

Bio 5

Sky Fortress

Thanks for reading

If you have any issues feel free to ask me in game at Platypus (or Cottontail if I'm on ranger)

Special thanks to Lifestream for being my warlock mentor as I was struggling along with the class. Now that I have experience with the warlock class I wish to pass all that I've learned to the next wave of warlocks.