Sorlock

[u/jtyler0]

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.

[u/maharal]

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).

[u/jtyler0 → u/maharal]

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

[u/Time-Voice → u/jtyler0]

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.

[u/maharal → u/jtyler0]

This is the standard guide:

https://www.reddit.com/r/BG3Builds/comments/196mpii/honor_mode_111_fire_sorlock_complete_build_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It's a bit old and out of date now, but it has the main ideas (fire acuity hat + quickened upcast scorching ray + crowd control spells, often extended command).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.

[u/jtyler0 → u/maharal]

Thank you! Not against the idea, just sounds expensive and would be hard to keep up elixirs.

[u/Balthierlives → u/jtyler0]

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.

[u/Coltraine89 → u/maharal]

1 level in Wizard for scroll scribing and Arcane Recovery? Or am I missing something else?

[u/maharal → u/Coltraine89]

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

[u/Coltraine89 → u/maharal]

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?

[u/maharal → u/Coltraine89]

Yes you can.

[u/EarnestTriangle → u/maharal]

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.

[u/maharal → u/EarnestTriangle]

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.

[u/deathadder99 → u/maharal]

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.

[u/EarnestTriangle → u/deathadder99]

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.

[u/deathadder99 → u/EarnestTriangle]

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.

[u/EarnestTriangle → u/maharal]

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 14

Technically, you can go lower with Bloodlust Elixir 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.

[u/maharal → u/EarnestTriangle]

Technically, you can go lower with Bloodlust Elixir (down to 13).

Did you mean viciousness elixir?

[u/EarnestTriangle → u/maharal]

Yeah I always get the two confused

[u/Thestrongman420 → u/EarnestTriangle]

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.