Hey e1! This is the companion thread to my video series: Voodu Warlock: A Pure Warlock Enlightened Spirit Tank Project
In this series, I took what I learned from the Gingerlocks series and applied it to my permanent warlock. In Episode 1, I introduce Voodu, a long time drow sorc, now reincarnated as a warlock. I discuss my plans for the toon and my goals. In each solo video I go over the progress I've made, my gear, enhancement and feat choices and I also discuss what is learned along the way and offer tips and advice. This series was not intended to be a guide, however I made it as informative as possible so it will be helpful for those who are learning warlock.
I called this a 'project' because I was still learning warlock and I was trying things along the way that were new for me. In Gingerlocks, I took each of the 3 warlock lives only to level 20, so the Voodu Warlock series includes my first experiences of warlock in epic levels!
My goals with this toon are:
1. To provide good casting dps
2. To self-sufficiently tank all raid bosses, with the specific goal of being able to stay toe-to-toe with the dragons in EE Fire on Thunder Peak, even through artifact rage and overdraw.
The constraints of the project are: Pure warlock and Drow race (both of these choices are more or less for flavor, but Enlightened Spirit capstone is very valuable and should be considered before making a choice to multiclass)
I do not recommend this build for high skull epic and legendary content. It can perform well in high skull heroic content and mid skull epic and legendary. Regarding tanking, I would not recommend it for raid tanking beyond R1, even with past lives.
The video series is complete but I am continuing to work on Voodu's past lives and evolving the build. All episodes are below and I will monitor and update this thread as I make changes. Note that stats, feats and enhancements change throughout the series, as I experiment with a variety of things along the way, but my current setup is below:
CLASS: pure warlock (the capstone is very nice!)
PACT: Fey (any pact choice is fine, more notes below)
RACE: Drow (this was a flavor choice only and just about any race is fine)
ALIGNMENT: Any
ABILITY SCORES
Starting: Str 8 ~ Dex 11 ~ Con 16 ~ Int 15 ~ Wis 8 ~ Cha 18. Increase constitution when leveling.
This is a constitution build, not a charisma build. As an Enlightened Spirit, constitution is extra valuable, not only because the added hit points increase surviveability, which compliments the close-quarters playstyle of a bursting warlock, but because high constitution improves the effectiveness of Shining Through and Brilliance, both of which are highly prized Enlightened Spirit enhancements. It also benefits from Stanch in the Tainted Scholar tree, which this build also makes use of. Charisma shouldn't be forgotten, but is not as important on an Enlightened Spirit burster, especially this build, compared to other types of warlocks which are more DC-based. This build, as many ES builds, is not a spell DC-dependent build. Most of an an Enlightened Spirit's burst damage is not save-based. The only portion of the burst damage that is DC-based is the pact damage, which is not the primary damage and is save for half.
IMPORTANT: I do not recommend playing as an Enlightened Spirit prior to getting Eldritch Burst at level 3. Up to that point you can play as a blaster, getting chain shape from the Tainted Scholar tree as soon as possible. For reaper play I prefer to wait until I get 43 action points at level 9 to respec to Enlightened Spirit, which is when I can get spend 23 points in ES to get important tier 4 abilities medium armor proficiency and Brilliance and also have 11 points in Tainted Scholar to get Utterdark Blast and Stanch. Many prefer to wait until level 12 when you can get tier 5 Spirit Blast (the second burst). Up to this point you can play either as a Soul Eater cone shape blaster or Tainted Scholar chain shape blaster, whichever you prefer. While I believe that cone shape is more powerful, I personally prefer chain shape in for low levels, which allows me to pick up some very useful Tainted Scholar enhancements like Stanch and Wand and Scroll Mastery.
SKILLS
Max Intimidate, Spellcraft, Balance, Concentration. 1 rank in Tumble and UMD. Remaining points in Perform (if Fey Pact) and Heal.
For reaper heroic leveling: Max UMD for heroics in order to use healing wands and scrolls as soon and as effective as possible, which are very important in reaper questing. UMD will be plenty high enough once you reach epic levels, so when epic reincarnating you can change out the UMD skill points to perform or other more relevant skills for epic levels.
FEATS
Level 1: Maximize Spell
Level 3: Empower Spell
Level 6: Force of Personality
Level 9: Quicken Spell
Level 12: Shield proficiency (general)
Level 15: Shield Mastery
Level 18: Improved Shield Mastery
Level 21: Epic Eldritch Blast
Level 24: Intensify Spell
Level 26: (Epic Destiny Feat): Epic Arcane Eldritch Blast*
Level 27: Epic Damage Reduction
Level 28: (Epic Destiny Feat): Elusive Target
Level 29: (Epic Destiny Feat): Deific Warding*
Level 30: Completionist or Great Constitution
Level 30: Scion of Celestia
I recently changed my level 28 and 30 feats from Toughness and Epic Toughness to Elusive Target and Great Constitution.
*Epic destiny feat Epic Arcane Eldritch Blast requires 1 capped destiny in the arcane sphere. Deific Warding requires 3 capped destinies in the divine sphere. Capped means a fully maxed xp bar, not just level 5.
Unless otherwise noted, the following numbers are unbuffed, no metas, boosts, pots, etc. at level 30 (outside of reaper).
HP: 3864 (unbuffed permanent HP in Vigor of Battle stance. This is outside of reaper, but includes innate tier 2-6 Grim Barricade and tier 2-3 Dire Thaumaturge, which are always on)
Max Temp HP: 7053 (fully buffed with Shining Through, Stanch, Tenser's, Primal Scream, Yugo pot, remnant pot)
SP: 1818
AC: 202
PRR: 257
MRR: 161
Intimidate: 122 (with Greater Heroism and Spider Cult Mask)
Light spell power: 522
Heal amp.: 220
Fortification: 200%

ENHANCEMENTS
I have recently started using the perma-shield enhancement for tanking the brides in the Strahd raid, otherwise I would have tier 3 Power of Enlightenment maxed.
I have also replaced the 12 points in my racial tree with 12 points spent in Falconry to get 6 PRR, 15 healing amplification, +1 constitution and +5% stacking hit points from tier 3 Conditioning.
For Reaper heroic leveling I highly recommend Wand and Scroll Mastery enhancement in Tainted Scholar, which is very nice to boost healing from wands and scrolls on self and others, which helps to mitigate some of the self-healing penalties in reaper mode.
HEROIC PAST LIVES
Sorc past lives are nice for bonuses to evocation DC (blast and burst saves are affected by evocation bonuses for the pact damage only). Cleric Past lives are nice for bonuses to conjuration DC (Evard's Black Tentacles and Web are Conjuration). Wizard and Favored Soul past lives are nice for up to a +9 bonus to spell penetration (Evard's has a spell pen. check). My current heroic past lives are 3 sorc, 3 wiz, 3 fvs, 3 wlk, 3 pal, 3 cleric, 3 barbarian and 2 bard.
EPIC PAST LIVES

4 stances: Colors of the Queen, Energy Criticals, Brace and Skill Mastery. Focus on getting 3 each of these EPL's first, which will grant Epic Completionist and open your 4th twist of fate! After you get these, focus on additional Divine, Primal and Martial EPL's for bonuses to PRR, HPs and AC. Voodu has all 36 epic past lives.
ICONIC PAST LIVES
Stance: Morninglord. Morninglord past life stance gives +10 light and alignment spell power per stack up to +30. PDK past lives give PRR, so great for adding to defensiveness for any toon. Shardar-Kai past lives give added dodge, however I do not plan on getting these past lives because I am dodge capped. My current iconic past lives are 3 Deep Gnome, 3 Morninglord and 3 PDK.
RACIAL PAST LIVES
As a constitution build I prioritized 3 each of Warforged and Dwarf, followed by charisma races Half-elf and Dragonborn. With these lives finished, I am continuing to work through all the remaining races toward the goal of Racial Completionist. My current racial past lives are 3 Dwarf, 3 Warforged, 3 Half-elf, 3 Dragonborn and 2 Drow.
EPIC DESTINY
Unyielding Sentinel. The high defenses of this epic destiny work well with the close-quarters bursting playstyle of an Enlightened Spirit. There are higher dps destinies for an Enlightened Spirit warlock, such as Exalted Angel, Divine Crusader and Shiradi Champion. I prefer the added survivability of Sentinel over the added dps of the others.
After amassing a large number of the defensive epic past lives, I found the added defenses of Sentinel were not necessary for regular questing, even legendary elites. While I was preferring Divine Crusader for regular questing, reaper mode has taken me back to Sentinel full time. I highly recommend Sentinel for regular questing for newer players using my build and for those without a bunch of past lives, especially if doing epic and legendary elites and epic reaper questing.
TWISTS OF FATE
1. Divine Crusader Empyrian Magic
2. Divine Crusader Sacred Ground
3. Divine Crusader Consecration
4. Primal Avatar Rejuvenation Cocoon
5. Fury of the Wild Primal Scream
I recently made some changes due to reaper mode, to include Consecration and Sacred Ground, which not only add AOE dps, but more importantly add to self healing and party healing, which is critical in reaper questing. Empyrian Magic is a must twist for any Enlightened Spirit. The aura and bursts make it run at an always on +20 spell power and +10% crit chance. Rejuvenation Cocoon is great to add to the self healing ability. Others to consider, especially while working through epic destinies for the first time include Fey Form, Serenity, Interrogation, Rough Hide, Ephemeral Evolution, Radiant Power and Unearthly Reactions. Primal Scream is nice not only for the con boost, but the sonic damage is boosted by spell power so it does about 5k sonic damage to surrounding mobs.
PACT
This build is workable with any pact. I Chose Fey pact originally because I really like abundant step-like abilities, so Misty Escape was perfect for me. With my tanky playstyle, Misty Escape allows me to move through and directly into the middle of a group of mobs and start bursting from within. Misty Escape is also a nice way to escape when you're trapped, as it allows you to move through mobs. I also really like that Fey pact has Otto's Irresistible Dance, which is great to use on champions and reapers. Fey pact also includes Dark Delirium, which is a nice no-save stun to use on a mob that you don't want to deal with for a bit.

GEAR (end game)
Goggles: Legendary Green Steel** 3x material-opposition (triple negative: t1 blindness immunity, t2 fear immunity, t3 deathblock and 25 negative resistance)
Head: Legendary Green Steel** 3x material-opposition (triple fire resistance)
Neck: Legendary Chains* (reaper +3 MRR, mythic +1, Fortification +185, Radiance +185, Spellsight +22, Quality Intimidate +5, slotted with strength +8)
Trinket: Legendary Planar Compass (mythic +1 slotted with protection +8). I switch to Bell of Warding in content where high defenses aren't needed.
Cloak: Legendary Green Steel** 3x material-opposition* (triple positive: +224 unconscious range)
Belt: Legendary Green Steel** 3x material-opposition* (triple electric resistance)
Quiver: Quiver of Alacrity
Ring1: Legendary Five Rings* (mythic +1, Charisma +17, Resistance +14, Intimidate +22, Quality PRR +11, slotted with Deathblock)
Ring2: Legendary Five Rings* (mythic +1, Sheltering +45, Radiance Lore +27, Spell Focus Mastery +6, Quality Constitution +4, slotted with Crushing Wave Guard)
Hands: Legendary Green Steel** 3x material-opposition (triple acid resistance)
Bracers: Arm of the Aggressor (mythic +1 slotted with Good Luck +2 and False Life +40)
Boots: Boots of Blessed Travels (slotted with Golem's Heart and Dexterity +8)
Armor: Legendary Scales of Malice (slotted with Globe of True Imperial Blood)
Shield: Epic Shield of Tireless Aid (mythic +4 slotted with Spell Agility +15)
Weapon: Legendary Green Steel Radiance (t1 +30 heal amp, t2 +7 insightful dex, t3 +70 heal amp) I discuss and demonstrate this weapon in a video here.
Weapon 2: I switch to Dusk in content where high defenses aren't needed. I show and discuss how Dusk compares to LGS Radiance a video here.
*Legendary Slave Lords Endurance 3-piece set
**This 5 piece LGS set gives the following bonuses: +36% stacking hp, +35% spell critical damage and Ender set bonus
GEAR (end game non-raid suggestions for those who don't like to raid)
Goggles: Legendary Symphonic Lenses, Legendary Summoner's Spectacles, Legendary Lenses of the Orator
Head: Legendary Pansophic Circlet, Legendary Boundless, Legendary Hardened Hide, Epic Eloquence, Epic Minos Legens, Epic Sage's Skullcap**, Epic Mushroom Cap, Plundered Pirate Hat
Neck: Legendary Chains, Legendary Ward-Inscribed Pendant, Epic Lion's Mane*, Epic Vim and Vigor, Necklace of Mystic Eidolons, Epic Sage's Locket**
Trinket: Legendary Five Rings, Legendary Empowered Dragonscale, Legendary Symbol of the Slave Lords, Legendary Planar Compass, EE Shamanic Fetish, Broken Music Box, Magestar, Epic Token of the Proven
Cloak: Legendary Mantle of Fury, Legendary Phasecloak, Legendary Scarlet Scale Cloak, Epic Guardian's Cloak**, Mysterious Cloak, EE Ghost-Waking Cloak, Legendary Slave Master's Cloak, Elite Nightsinger's Mantle*
Belt: Legendary Chains, Epic Belt of Thoughtful Remembrance*, Epic Chord of Reprisals*
Rings: Legendary Band of Insightful Commands, Legendary Five Rings, Lantern Ring, Legendary Brazenband*, Epic Ivy Helix*, Epic Laurel Helix*, Epic Guardian's Ring**, Epic Eye of the Beholder*, EE Ring of the Djinn
Hands: Legendary Dashing Gloves, Legendary Gauntlets of Innate Arcanum, Iron Mitts*
Bracers: Legendary Mystic Wrappings, Legendary Shackles, Epic Ethereal Bracers*, Epic Inferno Bracers* (Fiend Pact), Epic Barbette's Bracers*, Guardian's Bracers**, Mysterious Bracers, Legendary Bracers of the Fallen Hero
Boots: Orcish Privateer's Boots*, Legendary Flightfoot Greaves, Legendary Softsole Slippers
Armor: Legendary Scales of Malice, Legendary Coat of the Traveler, Epic Scales of Surety*, Legendary Hardened Hide Armor
Shield: Epic Shield of Tireless Aid*, EE Skyvault Shield, Legendary Breaker of Bodies, EE Bulwark of the Storm's Fist
Weapon: Legendary Morninglord's Sceptre, Legendary Nightmother's Sceptre, Thunderforged, EE Hammer of the Leaden Clouds

Note for newer players: *items are a relatively easy farm. **items are guaranteed in end rewards. Random loot and Cannith crafted items also provide a lot of great gearing options.
SHIELDS AND ARCANE SPELL FAILURE
I'm adding a special section for shields because one of the most frequent questions I get is about which shields to use and how to overcome arcane spell failure while using a shield on a warlock. At low levels, I personally like to use a small mithral shield blank to craft on. Mithral shields are no longer on the main loot tables, but can still drop as end rewards from some older quests and chains like waterworks, Red Fens, Sharn Syndicate and I believe some others. A small mithral shield will have no ASF. You can also use a large mithral shield, which will have 5% ASF that can be overcome crafting a Lesser Arcane Spell Dexterity item using Cannith Crafting. Lesser Arcane Spell Dexterity affects ASF from any source, regardless of the item that its crafted onto.
By the time you reach mid to upper heroic levels, you can use shields like Fanion and Skyvault Shield, which have zero ASF. You can also use a Sapphire of Spell Agility augment at levels 12/16/20 to overcome 5%/10%/15% ASF. A typical large shield has 15% ASF so by the time you reach level 20 you can use a Sapphire of Spell Agility +15 to overcome the ASF of any large shield, as I do with an Epic Shield of Tireless Aid at level 28. You can purchase a Sapphire of Spell Agility +15 from Lahar, the epic vendor in The Twelve for 20 Tokens of the Twelve. Epic Skyvault Shield is also a nice choice for mid epic levels. Some people like to use Skyvault at endgame, however be aware that it has a max dex/dodge bonus of 4. For more about arcane spell failure, see the DDO wiki article here.
SPELLS
REAPER
I have worked through a few reaper lives so far. Typically 3-4 skulls if soloing or, 5 skulls if with 1 or more other people and 6-7 skulls in full groups. I do not recommend this build for high skull reaper. Charm Person is really helpful in early levels, so can swap out the Shield spell and use wands or take the Shield Enhancement instead and swap back once you get out of single digit levels or whenever Charm Person becomes ineffective. I also found the Fey Pact spell Blindness to be very useful in low levels. Wand and Scroll Mastery from Tainted Scholar is nice to boost healing from wands and scrolls for self and others during heroic reaper questing and can swap out in epics.
Temporary hit points from effects like Shining Through, Brilliance and Stanch are not affected by the self healing debuff and are therefor huge in reaper questing. Things turn a corner once you get Brilliance, which should be top priority once you get to level 6. Things turn another major corner again at level 12 once you get Spirit Blast and Shining Through.
I have been investing my reaper points in the Grim Barricade tree for added survivability in reaper quests, with emphasis on PRR and con, with a couple points in dodge to max out my cap. I also spent points in UMD for heroics in order to use healing wands and scrolls, which are very important in reaper questing. UMD will be plenty high enough once you reach epic levels, so when epic reincarnating you can change out the UMD skill points to perform or other more relevant skills for epic levels.
I really like the Legendary Green Steel Radiance weapon in reaper mode for the blinding effect and healing amplification, both are very valuable in reaper. I can feel a serious difference in self healing when I'm accidentally using a different weapon in reapers. Rejuvenation Cocoon, Renewal and Sacred Ground keep me self healed quite well with 220 heal amp.
At level cap, with 63 reaper points (51 Grim, 13 Dire) my self-sufficient tanking ability holds up well up to about 5-6 skulls, depending on the content. Beyond that I need healing support for sustained tanking. This is with a wealth of past lives and so without the past lives, tanking ability would be reduced. In reaper mode my standing hp is 4869 and max temp hp is 8513. Here is a heroic R10 Crucible video that I did with 49 reaper points in a full group.
While working through my racial lives, just going to 20, I found that after building up about 40-50 reaper points, I had enough added survivability from reaper trees that I didn't need all the extra constitution if I was just going to level 20. So I switched to doing a charisma based build for the lives where I was just going to level 20, which was fun and more powerful to be able to focus more on some of the DC based spells like charms and instakills. Most of my heroic leveling is done in reaper 5-7 skulls.
WHAT TO DO BETWEEN BURSTS

People who are newer to warlock often ask what to do between bursts while they are on cooldown. Here's what I am typically doing on Voodu between bursts...
1. Heal myself and others with Rejuvenation Cocoon and Renewal.
2. Consecration (with Sacred Ground)
3. Evard's Black Tentacles
4. Otto's Irresistible Dance a reaper, champion, caster or orange named
5. Darkfire
6. Swing my weapon
7. Intimidate
8. Primal Scream
9. Refresh Displacement or Tensor's Transformation
10. Sleet Storm
11. Shining Through
12. Tainted Spellcasting
13. Dark Delirium
14. Wail of the Banshee
15. Drink a Potion of Greater Brilliance
16. Symbol of Death
17. Stanch as an emergency heal
18. Waves of Exhaustion
19. sip my coffee
EPISODES
Note that in the first life of the series I do a heavy armor charisma build, after the 10/21/15 balance pass I changed to a medium armor constitution build.
Trailer
Episode 1: Level 2 Stopping the Sahuagin
Episode 2: Level 5 Cloven-jaw Scourge: Blockade (STK 1)
Episode 3: Level 7 The Stones Run Red
Episode 4: Level 9 Storm the Beaches
Episode 5: Level 11 Claw of Vulkoor
Episode 6: Level 13 Spawn of Whisperdoom
Episode 7: Level 14 Solo Elite DQ Raid (Zawabi's Revenge)
Episode 8: Level 15 Solo Elite Reaver's Fate
Episode 9: Level 18 How to Solo Elite In the Demon's Den
Episode 10: Level 21 Solo Elite Bastion of Power
Episode 11: Level 23 Solo EE VON 2 (The Prisoner)
Episode 12: Level 24 Solo EE Lords of Dust part 1 of 2 (in Shiradi)
Episode 13: Level 24 Solo EE Lords of Dust part 2 of 2 (in Sentinel)
Episode 14: Level 25 Solo EE Rusted Blades with Optional
Episode 15: Level 28 Tanking EE Lord of Blades with Marking
Episode 16: Level 28 Solo EE Demon Assault
After Episode 16, the 10/21/15 balance pass happened and the build changes from a Charisma heavy armor build to a Constitution medium armor build.
Starting with episode 17, I epic reincarnate and begin my race to epic completionist.
Episode 17: Level 20 Solo Elite Breaking the Ranks
Episode 18: Level 25 Solo EE DQ Raid (Zawabi's Revenge)
Episode 19: Level 28 Solo EE Gianthold Tor (with dragons)
Episode 20: Level 28 Solo EE Devil's Details
Episode 21: Level 22 Solo EE Deal and the Demon
Episode 22: Level 25 Solo EE Trial by Fire
Episode 23: Level 28 Tanking Truthful One in EE Fall of Truth
Episode 24: Level 28 Tanking EE Temple of the Deathwyrm
Episode 25: Level 26 How to solo EE Crucible
Episode 26: Level 22 Solo EE into the Deep
Episode 27: Level 29 Solo LE To Curse the Sky
Episode 28: Level 28 Solo EE Subversion
Episode 29: Level 20 Solo Elite Shroud
Episode 30: Level 29 duo EE Fall of Truth
Episode 31: Level 30 Tanking EE Fire on Thunder Peak
Some of my other videos and series:
Gingerspyce Deep Gnome Druid Project
Northwynd: The Druid True First Life Series
How to Choose your Warlock for Beginners
How to Craft a Heroic Green Steel Item and Use the Crafting Planner
How to Craft a Legendary Green Steel Item and Use the LGS Crafting Planner
Beginner's Guide to Cannith Crafting
The Basics of Reincarnating in DDO
How to Prioritize Past Lives
Beginner's Guide to Epic Destinies and Twists of Fate
over 800 quest videos, raid guides, crafting tutorials and much more for newbies and experienced players alike at my DDO Youtube channel and you can find me live streaming nearly every day on my Twitch channel vooduspyce.