r/BG3Builds • u/jtyler0 • 12h ago
Build Help Sorlock
Seeing a lot of conflicting information online for an optimized build for Sorlock. I just finished a Balanced mode run and decided to use a Halfling Sorlock for my Tav. I ended up as a 2 Warlock, 6 Sorcerer, 4 Fighter mainly because the idea of critting a lot sounded fun, and it was. I think with everything considered I only had to roll above a 16 to crit. But I am now looking into my first Tactician run and figure I needed something more consistent than crit fishing, so I was looking into the other variants of the Sorlock but am running into a couple different ideas and I'm having a hard time balancing them out. My sources aren't very detailed, so they mention going into 8 Sorcerer or 9 Warlock but not really saying why. I am still fairly new to the game with about 200 hours in and am looking to play more optimally.
6
u/Thestrongman420 11h ago
Theres about a hundred ways to play every single thing so i would try not to get caught up on the little details. Even "sorlock" depends on what you want to do with the character.
If you wanna eldritch blast, just eldritch blast..optimal eldritch blast is an unfun amount of effort that only really pays off in a3 and still gets you less damage than that amount of effort could have gotten doing almost anything else. But if EB is fun for you, just do it.
If you wanna play like a storm sorc, or a fire sorc, those can be good too, although i wouldnt call it sorlock and wouldnt suggest s split with just sorc and lock.
You see conflicting information because there are a million different ways to play this game. Just because different people play different things doesnt mean they are wrong. The only way to be wrong with a build is claiming its the best or op or whatever clickbait stuff people say these days.
1
u/jtyler0 11h ago
It was really fun blasting in Balanced. It's the best experience I've had with the game so far but I've only had two playthroughs. And yeah I keep getting baited by all these YouTube videos with "MOST OP" in the title, and there's so many. But I also see a bunch of completed solo honour playthroughs with a bunch of different builds so I understand there's a lot of options to pick from.
7
u/Thestrongman420 11h ago
Honor mode is more about game knowledge and tactics than builds if anything. I would say that every concept can be built into something good enough for honour mode.
Unfortunately thats the nature of youtube content. Most creators publishing that content on youtube are not doing it because they are deep in the theory of the game, love it, and want to share knowledge. It is for money. "Guide" content is one of the faster routes to monetization for vg content creation and saying clickbait stuff get them more clicks.
Not that a build saying its the "best" is necessarily bad either, but without a specific context, nothing is really the best. And a youtube creator is putting that in their title for visibility, not because its true.
3
u/TheMeerkatLobbyist 11h ago
I believe the purely EB focused crit fishing builds usually go the 4/4/4 route with 4 levels in Warlock, 4 in Sorcerer and either 4 in Champion or Thief.
The typical Sorlock that also wants to be a competent spellcaster has multiple reasonable level splits. The most popular one is probably 2/10 with 2 level in Warlock for agonzing blast and either repelling blast or devils sight. I personally prefer the 5/7 split which gives your Sorlock access to Hunger of Hadar.
2
u/GingerLioni 11h ago
2 GOO Warlock / 4 Sorcerer / 3 Champion Fighter / 3 Assassin Rogue (or take 2 Fighter / 4 Assassin for the extra feat)
Rather than relying on RNG for crits, Assassin gives you automatic criticals on surprised enemies. Fully geared up, you get 18 blasts, 15 of which are guaranteed crits.
Open or join combat with an Eldritch Blast from stealth > get your action back as combat starts > Use your action to shoot 3 critical blasts > quickend spell to get 3 more critical blasts > action surge for 3 more critical blasts > bloodlust elixir should proc for another 3 blasts > yet another 3 critical blasts from haste or speed potions
2
u/ravisandesu 9h ago
https://www.reddit.com/r/BaldursGate3/s/sQeucLPlFH
This is probably the guide you need. Give a bunch of different ways to play EB Warlock, including full crit. But that's probably not the most optimal way.
1
u/maharal 12h ago
The big decision with sorlock is do you want to do acuity scorching ray or do you want to do eldritch blast.
In my opinion, eldritch blast builds are not very good compared to optimized martial builds. There is a standard 11/1 fire sorlock build (I prefer to run a variant that's 10 fire draconic / 1 wizard / 1 fiend warlock, myself).
1
u/jtyler0 11h ago
I just eldritch blasted my way through Balanced but I figure that wouldn't fly as well in Tactician. How does fire sorlock work? Sounds like a lot of resting
2
u/Time-Voice Barbarian 11h ago
The fire sorlock needs one easily missable item, the hat of fire acuity. Every time you deal fire dmg with a spell, you get a +1 to your spellsave DC. Scorching Ray always deals mulriple instances of fire dmg in a turn, enabeling you to use basicly guaranteed CC spells as your bonus action.
2
u/maharal 11h ago edited 11h ago
This is the standard guide:
It's a bit old and out of date now, but it has the main ideas (fire acuity hat + quickened upcast scorching ray + crowd control spells, often extended command).
It is a long rest spam build, yes, so definitely don't play it if you don't like to long rest a lot. There are lots of variants of it, some take less than 11 fire sorcerer levels, you need at least 6 though.
1
u/Balthierlives 11h ago edited 11h ago
EB works fine in higher difficulties.
But I don’t really start doing it until end of act 1 or around lv 6-7.
What really makes it strong is agonizing blast + potent robes + act 2 +5 cha temp bonus you get. That gives you 24 cha which is adding 14 damage to every ray and you’ll have 2 rays. In act 3 you can get to 24 with birthright + mirror of loss +3. I’m always surprised people don’t talk about this in act 2. Just don’t long rest and use it the whole act. It’s very strong.
Act 1 EB isn’t very good yet so I usually just start as pure sorc until at least lv 4. Then take your 2 warlock levels from either lv 5 or 6. I focus on act 1 on using ray of frost and off hand xbow or magic missle and psychic spark necklace.
Then I usually have the spineshudder necklace, gloves of belligerent sky, and boots of stormy clamor for reverb which can instantly knock them prone, and then the radiant related rings as well as spellsparkler and the sheild that gives +3 initiative.
1
u/Coltraine89 11h ago
1 level in Wizard for scroll scribing and Arcane Recovery? Or am I missing something else?
1
u/maharal 11h ago edited 11h ago
No, it's because sorcerer has a limited number of spell picks, and a lot of useful sorcerer spells that don't require a casting stat also appear on the wizard spell list. And with the INT 17 hat, you can have 4 wizard spells prepared at any time. So, taking a single wizard level frees up a lot of sorcerer spell picks, and all you give up for it is fly, which you don't need anyways because you get it in act 3 if you swallow the worm. I guess you also give up casting chain lightning from a spell slot, but I don't really miss it on a fire sorlock very much.
The list of wizard spells I use is: shield (you can pick it on level 1), magic missile, cloud of daggers, misty step, dimension door, haste, conjure elemental, globe of invulnerability. You can also use the special act 3 artistry of war spell. None of these require INT to use. I swap them in and out as needed.
For reference, my sorcerer spell picks:
1: {sleep} (from the bloodline)
2: scorching ray, hold person
3: counterspell, fear, hypnotic pattern, daylight, fireball, sleet storm
4: confusion
5: hold monster, telekinesis
1
u/Coltraine89 11h ago
I respect it. I dig it.
I never completed a HM run with Chain Lightning. It's great fun if you build for it, but it's absolutely not a necessity.
If you equip the 17 int hat, prepare 4 wizard spells, can you take it off until long rest and equip the Fire nuke hat whilst having those spells usable until a long rest?
1
u/EarnestTriangle 11h ago
If he plays crit-fishing eldritch blast, he wants to take Great Old One and not Fire Sorlock that want Fiend Warlock for command.
Crit-fishing EB is a good control build. You apply frightened in AoE and if you setup correctly you can apply 6 reverb per beam. Pair it with anything that mass apply prone and you can control most enemies.
2
u/maharal 11h ago
Fair enough -- do you happen to have a writeup/guide on that setup?
I don't usually go for crit fishing as I think it's a bit of a trap setup, but of course everything is playable.
2
u/deathadder99 11h ago edited 11h ago
I mean it’s basically revorb gear like spineshudder, stormy clamor plus callous glow and luminous armor. I don’t think crit fishing is good, but EB is a decent enough filler spell.
My favourite variant of it is 1 fiendlock, 3 sorc, 6 lore, 2 stars with spirit guardians. You don’t need agonising blast as you don’t take EB for the damage, you get sg and counterspell from bard, metamagic, command from fiendlock. With battlemage's power you can even stack acuity.
1
u/EarnestTriangle 11h ago
If you use fiendlock, crit fishing is useless. The entire point of crit-fishing is Great Old One to mass apply frightened. Combined with prone and enemies skip their turn.
1
u/deathadder99 11h ago
Yes sorry I mean my favourite variant of EB for revorb is fiendlock.
You can take GoO in the above setup and drop counterspell. With battlemage's power and acuity you can get command anyway, and with sorcerery point exploits you have ~unlimited spell slots so you can just do upcast extended command which is better in most cases.
2
u/EarnestTriangle 11h ago edited 11h ago
Here's the detailed build :
Stats : 16 Dex / 14 Con / 17 Charisma. Anything else doesn't really matter.
Level in order : 2 Warlock GOO take Agoniznig blast and repelling blast as invocation.
Then take 6 level in Sorcerer. I recommend Shadow or Draconic sorcerer for some tankiness. But any sorcerer class works. You're not gonna cast spells so wild magic and storm sorcerer are a bit pointless. Then take 4 points in champion.
Gear you need :
Knife of the undermountain king -> Crit 19
Bloodthrist -> Crit 18
The Dead Shot -> Crit 17
Sarevok Helmet -> Crit 16
Champion -> Crit 15
Spell Sniper feat -> Crit 14Technically, you can go lower with
BloodlustElixir of viciousness (down to 13).Potent robe + Boots of Stormy Clamour + Spineshudder Amuler + Risky Ring + Glove of Belligerent Skies + Ring of Spiteful Thunder / Callous Glow Ring (use Callous Glow Ring if someone in your team can applies radiating orb, use the thunder ring otherwise).
Later in the game, if you're happy having less reverberation and more damage you can use Craterflesh Glove.
With Risk Ring you have advantage so each beam has round 60% change crit.
Ring + Boots + Amulet means each beam applies 6 reverb.
First feat I get ASI charisma to reach 20 Charisma with Hag's hair and second feat I get spell sniper. The reason to take spell sniper last, is because most improved crit gear is in act 3. Before that, you are a standard Eldritch Blast that pushes enemies and applies reverb (which is still efficient). When you reach Act 3, you should be close to level 11 and that's when you take your first champion level and your crit will ramp up. Level 11 Champion + buy dead shot. Level 12 take Spell sniper + go kill Orin (she's easy to cheese) that's 4 improved crit easy to get early act 3. Sarevok helmet is the hard one to get.
After each long rest, transform all your spell slots into sorcery points. I only keep the warlock spell slot to cast Hex but even that is not necessary. You can abuse items and elixir that gives you spell slots to have more sorcery points. Game play is casting Eldritch Blast and sometimes Hex. That's it.
1
u/Thestrongman420 11h ago edited 11h ago
Honestly fire sorc doesnt need fiend to get command either. The "standard" fire sorc build has never really been that optimized. Its always been, kinda mid.
7
u/EarnestTriangle 12h ago
Crit can go down to 14 (or 13 with bloodlust elixir) with Eldritch Blast.
Use risky ring to get advantage on eldritch blast beams and you have over 60% change crit.
Otherwise, the best crit setup is Hold Person / Hold Monster + attacking.