How To Create a Scourge Warlock

Scourge Warlock Class Description

The Scourge Warlock in the Neverwinter MMORPG is a character class focused on tearing into a single powerful enemy. They have some powers that affect multiple creatures but the true power of the Scourge Warlock shines when they are focused on a single enemy. They can’t withstand a lot of punishment but can deal a lot of damage. Scourge Warlocks make ideal characters for players that want to focus on the most powerful of enemies to both damage and weaken them.

Scourge Warlock Class Role Specifics

The Dungeons and Dragons 4e role that Scourge Warlocks fit into is the Striker, also known as DPS (Damage Per Second). Scourge Warlocks specifically focus on concentrating their efforts on the single, most powerful enemy. Many of their effects can hit and affect nearby enemies to a smaller degree. But the meat of the focus of the Scourge Warlock should be the most powerful thing in the encounter.

Scourge Warlocks favor offense over defense, using powers that hurt and hinder foes. Some of these powers take the Hit Points of the enemy and give them to the Scourge Warlock.

Their primary method of defeating enemies is by cursing enemies to start, then using their curse on their targets to enhance and empower their other effects of their powers. This all happens automatically but players should be aware of the synergy and make sure that their powers are used in the correct order to get the best affect from all of them.

Scourge Warlocks can also create Soul Puppets from the enemies they kill. This is a great way to get a little extra help when fighting tougher groups.

Creating a Scourge Warlock

When you create a Scourge Warlock in Neverwinter, keep in mind the primary abilities that make a good Scourge Warlock:

1. Charisma – This will determine the bonus that the Scourge Warlock gets from companions, Soul Puppets, and their ability to capitalize on Combat Advantage.
2. Intelligence – I advise that Intelligence is chosen over Constitution. With the ability to heal yourself Hit Points are not as important as the ability to speed up the recharge time on your powers as well as the damage they deal.

Picking a Race for your Great Scourge Warlock

Next, you will need to select the race of the character you want to play. A couple of good choices for the Scourge Warlock in Neverwinter are Moon Elf, Tiefling, or Sun Elf. These races may give you a slight advantage just starting out with their stat boosts. However, as you level, you can easily mitigate any advantage you may have had through assigning leveling points, feat points, and magic items. So don’t worry too much about what stats the race gives you.

Instead, choose a race that makes you happy, then look at the racial abilities they may offer, and lastly look to the ability bonuses the race may offer.

Rolling Dice for Ability Scores

You will roll virtual dice to determine starting ability scores. When you roll up your character, you can roll all you want. So make sure you keep rolling until you get the best stats possible for your Scourge Warlock. Charisma should be close to the maximum possible, and Intelligence should also be very high. If you can, try to get your character’s Constitution to a good score. Your other ability points will affect your character some, but not much, and not as importantly as your two primary abilities.

When you level up these abilities throughout your career as a Scourge Warlock, you should put 1 point in Charisma and 1 in Intelligence every time.

Items and Gear for a Scourge Warlock

The items and gear in the game definitely help fine tune your Scourge Warlock in Neverwinter. As a Scourge Warlock you are can wear leather defensive armor; however, to be a successful Scourge Warlock your focus should be on your weapon and other offensive items. It is your primary tool of your trade so you want to make sure you keep it upgraded at all times to the highest possible damage. Also try to focus on items that grant Recovery, Life Steal and Power. Recovery will increase the speed you recover action points. This will allow you to use your nasty damaging Daily Powers more often. Power will increase the potency of your powers so they are more effective. With careful planning you’ll be able to kill enemies with one shot, minions at your level, and take down an enemy boss very quickly. This will be the key to a successful Scourge Warlock.

As a Scourge Warlock your purpose is to hurt and hinder the biggest and nastiest thing in the encounter. Keep your focus on the most powerful enemies until they are dead and then move to the next most powerful. Keep your curses and debuffs on the enemies as best as you can. The only time a Scourge Warlock should change focus to a weak enemy is when they need to summon another Soul Puppet. Kill a weak foe for the Soul Puppet and then return your focus to the boss enemies of the encounter.

Make sure you are always stocked up on healing potions. They are relatively cheap and easy to use in the heat of combat, so use them liberally. Don’t wait too long to take a healing potion. When you get to half your hit points, make sure to take a healing potion.

You can also get short term buffs through collectibles bounties you will gather in each of the public areas. If you need the extra boost you can use these collectibles and turn them into the Bounty Boards to get items to use for short term bonuses. These will always relate to the area you are in so use them while you are in the area or for Foundry quests if they apply.

Also try to stockpile any potions you run across for the boss fights or other difficult areas. Taking a few potions for a fight can mean the difference between a miserable, drawn out failure and a quick resounding success!

Playing a Scourge Warlock

When you are playing a Scourge Warlock in Neverwinter, you should never lead the charge. Let others, preferably a Guardian Fighter or Oathbound Paladin enter the fray first. This way agro starts with them. The penalties and damage you can deal can pull agro easily but Scourge Warlocks are not good at taking damage so be careful.

Be careful as you move through dangerous areas and do not take any erroneous damage that can be avoided such as traps and burning areas.

The best strategy I found when playing a Scourge Warlock was to use your powers to curse as many enemies as possible. Then if you need a Soul Puppet take out a minion fast. Then focus on doing damage and hindering the most powerful creature. You definitely want to be on offense since it is by far the Scourge Warlock’s best tool.

Once engaged the try to keep the minions close to the more powerful creatures because some of your powers will hit them as well if they are close. However, try to keep the most powerful creature the main target as your strength will be wasted on the weaker enemies.

When encountering a group of archers or ranged enemies that will not approach or follow you, use your powers to just blast them at range. Unfortunately the “splash effects” (effects that affect those close to the main target) probably will not hit all the targets. It’s best to take out those that are not in a group first then focus on those that will be hit with the splash effects.

Some classes it is best to use Daily Powers as often as possible. That is not the case with Scourge Warlocks. It is generally better to save your Daily Powers for the right situation. Keep these in reserve so if you get into a bad situation or are struggling with a battle they can help out.

Companions of your Scourge Warlock

As you learn to play your Scourge Warlock in Neverwinter you will learn what you like and what you don’t. You will get a feel for your character and what may be a good complement to your style. This is where your companion choices will come into play.

Companions are the last thing these basic or Heroic guides will talk about. Heroic is level considered 1-30 in Neverwinter. Somewhere in your mid to late teens you will be able to afford a companion. There are many different ones to choose from but only a few real roles that they will serve.

I found that the best one for my Scourge Warlock in Neverwinter was a Defender. They worked well to continually group up and distract enemies from attacking me or my companion. Since the Scourge Warlock has great damage and can heal themselves the Defender ends up working out great.

The other choice would be a Striker companion such as a dog. Having a companion that will do the most damage can help finish off those minions that did not quite die or help damage the boss you are fighting. The extra damage this type of companion can offer will really speed things along. Though if you make a misstep or two you can quickly find yourself in dire straits. When you can afford two, this could be your second choice. Run around with your Striker companion until you get to a boss or tough area then switch to your Defender companion. This technique works really well.

It will really depend on your style of playing with your Scourge Warlock. If you like to take your time, a Leader might suit you well. When it comes down to what companions are best suited for a Scourge Warlock, the first would be a defender, and the second should fit your play style.

Grouping as a Scourge Warlock

When you are playing a Scourge Warlock in Neverwinter, you will want to group with others for a lot of different reasons. Play your Scourge Warlock well and you can insure the group’s success. All classes can be played poorly but a well-played Scourge Warlock will really help a group dominate the masses of monsters in the quest they are running.

When a Scourge Warlock is in a group they will want to follow the group, somewhere in the back of the pack. They are not well suited to take damage or be surprised. Also, you never really want to have the attention of enemies as a Scourge Warlock. So entering the fight as the last person will work out well.

1. The Scourge Warlocks’s main job is to deal damage to the most powerful enemies in an encounter.
2. A Scourge Warlock should also use their curses and debuffs to weaken and hinder the enemy.

It’s important to know that a well-played Scourge Warlock in Neverwinter should focus on taking down the bosses and keeping them weakened. The only time they should move their focus off is to get another Soul Puppet or possibly to save another player that is in trouble.

Player Versus Player as a Scourge Warlock

Disclaimer of Bias: First off let me say that Dungeons and Dragons has never been, nor never should be, a game based on single player versus player battles. The whole point of Dungeons and Dragons is to bring players together in a group, not have them fight each other. To this end, each role in Dungeons and Dragons is meant to be part of a whole cohesive unit and when you break that up, each piece cannot be balanced due to the role they fill. Being able to kill something is a very narrow view of what makes a character. That is just one thing in a long list of things that makes any Dungeons and Dragons game and group successful. Player versus player is a bit blasphemous, in my opinion and goes against the true spirit of Dungeons and Dragons. However, group versus group battles are more reasonable and have a better chance of succeeding in balance. I will talk a little about both below.

Scourge Warlocks in player versus player combat are not very good. The way they are designed to weaken and damage enemies over time make PVP battles for them very difficult. Especially since most PVP battles are focused on taking the other player character down as fast as possible. It is possible to make an OK Scourge Warlock PVP character but there are other classes that are simply better suited to PVP.

In group based player versus player combat, a Scourge Warlock can be effective, though with their focus on damage over time and heal over time they definitely need a powerful PVP class as a partner. When the other team decides they are tired of being harassed the Scourge Warlock will need some backup to stay alive.

Overview of a Scourge Warlock

All in all a Scourge Warlock in Neverwinter can be a lot of fun to play. They are a very active and tactical class to play. If you like to work with a large variety of powers that synergize with each other this is the Scourge Warlock may be the class for you. They are great at fighting bosses and can be quite active keeping their curses and Soul Puppets going at all times.

Scourge Warlocks have a ok mix of area of attack and single target powers in the game but they are not nearly as effective if powers, feats, and power order is not taken into account. Be sure to read carefully what all of the powers and feats do. Be sure you are using ones that complement each other. Through the use of feats and Paragon abilities, you will be able to fine tune your Scourge Warlock into the specific kind of character you want for Neverwinter.

For more information here is some basic stat information about the Scourge Warlock.