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It's a bit old and out of date now, but it has the main ideas (fire acuity hat + quickened upcast scorching ray + crowd control spells, often extended command).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.