Shattered Kingdoms

No Gear Necessary

Build Goal-

To build a character that does not necessarily need gear and still be able to play effectively. This is a warlock build.

Build Pros-

You can participate in PVE and PVP and not have to worry about losing your equipment, or even having any.
If you have gear, you can utilize it fully.
Spells available allow a certain amount of survivability even when naked.
Access to stone skin is a huge pro.
This build can solo just about anything.

Build Cons-

A bit squishy if in direct combat.
Can get boring not having trinkets to play with.
Casters can be a bit tricky to play correctly.

Character Creation-

Any race will do. I am particular to halflings because of their hide/sneak, natural MP and size. Second choice would probably be either gnome or deep-elf even griffon (as they would likely be the most survivable), although weakness to bolt of glory on a deep-elf warlock will kill you almost instantly without intense preparation.

Max, in this order, INT WIS ART MANA CON CHA DEX STR. You will likely be able to max int wis art and mana and just have to mod the rest, or not. Art is at the top under int and wis because warlocks are a damage based caster and art assists in landing your spells. Con benefits your elementals HP (I think) so it would be good to modify it if you do not have enough stat points, or to dump a little mana to raise your con.

Misc Choices-

Any religion, or no religion will do, access to spirit aura may not be the worst thing because of a few wands that exist. A tribunal is ALWAYS a good idea for a warlock, elementals make decent tanks so something with DPS would do. But really, the spells that warlocks have make DPS not as imporant.

For a warlock to be most effective the best cabal choice is the Druids because of entangle, this makes a warlock able to fight large groups alone. Also, with the Druids you can be any alignment. If you do not want to join the Druids the Harlequin or the Midnight Council (did it change names?) would be good choices, also perhaps the Crucible, although Druids are the top choice. Fists and Hammer would be last choices. At least with the Crucible you can have infinite mana, which is nice if you do not have a lot of time to play.

Leveling up-

Gear will not be very important after you get your elemental at journeyman, and you should be able to obtain that status off of newbie gear from a starting area. Grab a polemace from Garazul, or have someone look for one to make leveling a bit easier. Play with pets, as they have been known to change over time, the beefier the better, access to healing rays assist later on in leveling.

In every level, look for NPCs that are grouped. You get burning hands and shocking grasps early on so hitting entire groups will make you the most experience. Once you obtain fireball you can, with the help of a bard (for songs of sleep and their cords) you can take on whole areas with an earth elemental absorbing the damage. There is no particular order of areas I would recommend, as the grouped NPCs are spread out.

Lightning bolt, once obtained does excellent damage. And magma spray will make hitting grandmaster a breeze. The area in which you train will vary due to alignment, but ultimately attempt to stray away from magical resistant races as you will do less damage to them.

PK ADVICE-

PKing before master is not advised!!! By me anyway. Should you find yourself in PK before you get lightning bolt and an elemental, just RUN!

-ALWAYS HAVE STONE SKIN UP-

Once you obtain lightning bolt, use shocking grasp to lower their reflex and then shoot lightning bolts at them, it is a high damage spell. Fireball and chain lightning can be great in certain situations, but ultimately if you do not have access to the Druid spells they are very short lived in their utilization in PK.

Healing rays, especially when paired with another warlock, can be extremely powerful, it is the best group healing spell in the game.
Once you obtain magma spray, start off with a shocking grasp or two (if you want to lower their reflex) then a lightning bolt or two then magma them until it sticks and then more lightning bolt. Be sure to watch the HP of your group mates and heal when needed.
Once you have access to brew ALWAYS have stone skins in powerful or strong vials handy. Also, if you have a good priest or shaman friend makes vials that are stone skin/heal, these will be extremely helpful.

If you are not in a tribunal and just have the elemental and a pet and are faced with a merc or barb with a reaching weapon (these can be your worst enemy, especially if they are using a weapon that completely ignores stone skin) put your elemental in the second rank and initiate combat, this way instead of eating your store bought pet first they will have to chew through your elemental.

The subject of elementals- Generally, fire elementals are your best bet. Although the others have some uses.

Water elementals can reach and trip, and if you get ice tablets from the north you can turn them to ice (not sure if this really does anything).

Fire elementals are immune to many types of attack and can take a pretty good beating, always have them defensive though. Use sanctuary wands to ensure they always have a ward.

Earth elementals are pretty beefy, but I never really saw a point in using them.

Air elementals I never truly tested.

Wands are your best friend, if you can find good ones, although they are not completely needed as this build requires nothing but
logging in to be useful.

END GAME-

ALWAYS HAVE STONE SKIN UP!!!! This will save you in many unexpected situations.
Warlocks, especially Druid warlocks, can pretty much solo anything by combining entangle and fireball or chain lightning, if there is more than 5 enemies or NPCs use fireball, between 3 and 5 use chain lightning and if there is just one or two lightning bolt will suffice at a distance.

Fighting at a distance will always be your friend, especially if you are not in a group. Warlocks are, in my opinion, the BEST cabal HQ defenders, with call lightning being a little behind them.

You can pair with just about any class and they will have abilities to assist you.

I would say a scout, or a merc that is specialized in ranged weaponry would be your best ally if you can keep the fight at a distance.
For up close fights having a DPS class would be useful, something to drop the enemies front ranks fast and have your elemental absorb the damage.

A priest can be useful, but against characters with access to dirt kick you both could be rendered rather useless.

Dex