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The Empyreal Spears – Introduction to Spear Mage

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The Empyreal Spears – Introduction to the Warlock Discipline

Interested in the Warlock are you?! I can’t blame you, it’s only the most incredible discipline ever to grace the world of Defenders of the Cross. So to get started, here’s the basics.

How to become a Warlock

The Warlock is a discipline that comes from the Mage class. It’s not enough to simply be a Mage, however, the Warlock uses a weapon not normally associated with the Mage class, the spear! In using the spear, there are certain adjustments you have to make and things you have to avoid. First thing’s first, becoming disciplined does not necessarily make you stronger than the second job class, it just specializes you in fighting a specific way. To seek a discipline is a storyline choice and it requires dedication to the playstyle that the discipline identifies as. If this is not for you, you are not making yourself weaker by sticking to the path of a Standard Mage. 

Warlock Stat Priority

Primary Stat – STRENGTH

The spear gains its attack power from points in Strength, and as such you want to prioritize increasing it before all other stats. Warlocks fight much closer to the frontline than a Mage normally would, employing melee attacks and auto-attacks, therefore they benefit not only from the increased damage from Strength but also the increased defense and base health.

Secondary Stat – CONCENTRATION and INTELLIGENCE

Concentration is vital to any class centered around dealing damage, since concentration increases accuracy, and Warlock is no exception. Warlocks have powerful debuffs, devastating finishers and rely on auto attacks to maximize their damage output. If any of the previously mentioned skills fail to connect reliably, it is not good for you. 

As for Intelligence, while the bulk of our damage output is obtained from strength, the Warlock still uses a fair amount of MP to fight at 100% and zero investment into intelligence will make you burn through it rapidly. Furthermore, points in intelligence do offer a marginal bonus to Mystic Defense, which a mid-to-close range fighter such as a Warlock appreciates nonetheless.

Optional Stat – SENSE

The Sense stat increases your critical hit chance, improves the damage your reliable attacks deal and decreases the damage you take from reliable attacks. A Warlock does not mind any of these bonuses, so if you find the above stats in a plateau, putting spare points into SEN never hurts.

Muse / Mage skills useable by Spear

As you might imagine, using a different weapon from the norm has restrictions. Spear concentrates mostly on auto attack damage and single target skills from the Muse / Mage skill tree. Spear can use the majority of the single target skills a Mage can normally use, with the exception of Permafrost Chill. Spear can use Energy Doubt, a powerful single target debuff that Staff users do not have access to. Spear cannot use most area attacks in the Muse and Mage skill trees, however they do have access to Wind Storm and Magfire which are an area attack and a splash damage attack respectively. Spear does not have access to most buffs in the Supportive tree, with the exception of Hustle Charm. Additionally, spear does not have access to the Eucar Boost buff nor the Aural Pierce area debuff. As for passives, you do want to invest in Muse Mastery and Mage Combat Mastery as you normally would since it does increase your attack damage with a Spear. Additionally, you want to invest points in Skill Mastery and Cross Defender Soul which are the other passives that grant attack damage to the spear. 

Warlock Playstyle

So as an aspiring Warlock you want to stay at a medium range of your opponent and wait for an opportunity to go in and unleash your full might on an unfortunate target. You want to focus on attacks such as Arumic Shock to stun an enemy and allow a window to approach them, using debuffs such as Energy Burn which lower its target’s defense to leave them vulnerable to your auto attacks and melee combat skills such as Shaftstrike and Fierce Cudgeling. If your opponent tries to deal some heavy damage back you can debuff them using Energy Doubt and create a timeframe where dealing damage to you is difficult, allowing you to safely burst them. These are but some examples of how to play as a Warlock-to-be, but feel free to innovate!

The skills of a Warlock

Once you achieve the Warlock discipline you can look forward to new passives and skills to your repertoire. Briefly, they are as follows:

Energy Warrior: The main passive of a Warlock which increases Attack Speed, Defense and Max Health.

Thunder Current: A ranged attack which lowers dodge rate and accuracy.

Energy Blight: A melee attack version of Energy Doubt which applies the debuff for twice the duration.

Fulmination: A ranged attack which lowers the target’s mystic defense at a hefty MP cost.

Galvanize: A buff which increases attack speed and critical hit rate.

Scourge Strike: A devastating melee attack which deals magic damage.

And that’s a general introduction to the Warlock Discipline! Awesome isn’t it? You’re welcome. If you choose to go down this alternative path of fighting as a Mage I wish you the best of luck and for loads of fun ahead.

-Druid Armucis, Master of the Warlock Discipline

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