Warlocks are the elemental damage-focused spellcaster class of EO5, in the vein of Alchemists, Zodiacs, and Runemasters from previous EOs. To be honest, I could just end the intro block right there, but Warlocks do have some unique things going for them: namely, Incantations and their first specialization. Incantations are essentially charge skills with unique effects. A basic example is Incantation: Compression Form, which changes multi-target skills to single-target in exchange for more damage--basically letting you spend more TP to remove an unneeded multi-target benefit during, say, boss fights. In addition to that, there's also High-Speed Incantation, a Basic passive that makes it so that a Warlock can cast both an Incantation and an attack skill on the same turn. Their first specialization also gives them the ability to inflict INT-based physical damage, something the series hasn't really tried since the Phys Up tree in EO2 and Meteor in EO3.
Stats
Lunarian Base
Master of the Six Ways: Physical damage, disables, and multi-hit
(Full stat table)
Ruler of Fire, Ice, and Lightning: Laser-focus on elemental damage
(Full stat table)
Basic gist of the stats: Masters of the Six Ways get more HP, VIT, WIS, and LUC, while Rulers of Fire, Ice, and Lightning get more TP and INT.
Warlocks can equip staves and artillery, and can wear clothes.
There's legitimately no good reclass options for Warlocks that I can think of. Unlike the Earthrun classes, who largely deal physical damage, Lunarian classes can't really be effectively used by anyone other than Lunarians, due to their damage entirely being based on INT.
Basic Skills
Magi Mastery
Requirements: None
Increases damage dealt with Warlock skills.
High-Speed Incantation
Requirements: Magi Mastery level 5
Removes the need to use a turn to use Incantation skills, but increases the TP cost of Incantation skills as well. High-Speed Incantation is a permanent passive--it cannot be turned off once learned!
High-Speed Incantation fundamentally changes how a Warlock is used, and that change isn't necessarily good. To use Compression as an example, if you use a level 10 Fireball and a level 10 Compression, with level 5 High-Speed Incantation, your Warlock essentially now deals 2.25x of their normal damage on every turn. However, you're now also spending an extra 20 TP per turn on applying Compression--over a two turn period, Fireball would deal 472% damage for 33 TP without a High-Speed-influenced Compression, while High-Speed would mean your Warlock would deal 944% damage for 76 TP. In the late and postgame, where you start getting better TP restorations (Amrita IIs, mostly), and Rulers of Fire, Ice, and Lightning get Cost Cut access, this TP cost spike can become manageable, but before then, you [i]really[/i] need to have a good grasp on how quickly your party can end FOE/boss fights, because High-Speed Compression could easily mean your Warlock will run out of TP far before anyone else in your party.
Fireball / Icicle Lance / Lightning
Requirements: None
Body parts used: head
(Fireball)
(Icicle Lance)
(Lightning)
Deals ranged INT-based fire/ice/volt damage. Fireball targets one enemy and deals splash damage, Icicle Lance targets one enemy and has a line-piercing effect, Lightning targets one row of enemies. Fireball has a 70% speed modifier at all levels, Icicle Lance has no speed modifier at all levels, Lightning has a 130% speed modifier at all levels. All have 130 base accuracy at all levels.
The basic Warlock attack skills. I don't have much to say about the skills themselves, but I should note something about the elements: if you're trying to min-max how effective a Warlock is in early boss fights, note that no boss before the postgame is exclusively weak to fire--Golem and the final boss are exclusively weak to ice, the 2nd Stratum boss is exclusively weak to volt, and the 3rd and 4th Strata bosses are weak to everything.Amplifier
Requirements: None
Body parts used: Head
Increases all party members' INT-based attack for a set number of turns. Has an 80% speed modifier at all levels.
If you don't have a Shaman on your team, there's worse things you could do than having your Warlock focus on Amplifier early on, mostly because leveling up the attack skills too much early on will give your Warlock really bad TP issues, meaning that any buffs you can give them to increase their damage are pretty valuableMagic Shield
Requirements: Amplifier level 2
Body parts used: Head
Reduces INT-based damage to all party members for one turn. Has a 500% speed modifier at all levels.
I made use of this during Golem to ensure my party could live through Explosion, but beyond that, I don't think much of Magic Shield, mostly because I'm not that big a fan of having a damage dealer class perform support duties.Incantation: Compression Form
Requirements: None
Body parts used: Head
On the next turn, multi-target skills (does not apply to Alter or Magic Weapon, basically) will only hit one target, but gain increased damage as well. Has a 60% speed modifier at all levels.
Oh man, Compression, look what they did to you... Remember how Compression cost 5 TP at level 20 in EO2U, and buffed all-target attacks for double damage at the same level? Remember how that lasted for effectively three turns, too? Yeah, uh, now it costs 15 TP for 2.25x damage for one attack. That doesn't mean it's bad, mind you--far from it, since it means your Warlock isn't wasting potential damage on keeping multi-target targeting in FOE/boss fights. It's just... Jesus, I knew Compression was powerful, but that's one of the most severe nerfs to a single skill I've seen in the entire EO series.Levitation
Requirements: None
For a set number of steps, damage tiles are negated, and the chance of getting a preemptive attack is increased.
Labyrinth skills, blehhhhhhh. I don't mind one point in Levitation since the 3rd Stratum and 6th Stratum's primary gimmicks are damage tiles, but any more than that is a ludicrous waste.Invisible
Requirements: None
For a set number of steps, reduces the encounter rate.
Reduce the amount of EXP your party gets overall. What a fantastic idea.Master of the Six Ways Skills
Common Passives: TP Up, Mag DEF Up
Reserve Magic
Requirements: None
If the user attacked using a different element than the one they're using this turn (say, they casted Fireball on the last turn and Icicle Lance on this turn), the previous turn's element is added to this one, and damage is increased--the Fireball/Icicle Lance example would result in Icicle Lance being fire+ice. Only the base element of the skill used on the last turn counts for Reserve Magic--you can't daisy-chain various Reserve Magic elements together. Reserve Magic resets every other turn, including the damage bonus.
A pretty neat passive that encourages varying up the skills you use and lets the physical skills still hit elemental weaknesses. What's not to love? Even if you don't want to drop 10 skill points on a 25% damage bonus, at least put one in for the element copy effect.Windstorm
Requirements: Fireball level 3, Icicle Lance level 3, Lightning level 3
Body parts used: Head
Deals ranged INT-based cut damage to all enemies. Attempts to bind hit targets' arms. Has no speed modifier and 130 base accuracy at all levels.
The physical skills! Windstorm's probably the most "generically useful," I guess, of the three, mostly because arm binds are pretty useful, and a Multistrike Windstorm has a pretty decent chance of inflicting them.Earth Spike
Requirements: Fireball level 3, Icicle Lance level 3, Lightning level 3
Body parts used: Head
Deals ranged INT-based stab damage to all enemies. Reduces hit targets' INT-based attack for one turn. Has no speed modifier and 130 base accuracy at all levels.
...Well, uh, that's a... Okay, I won't mince words, that's a pretty garbage secondary effect.Rockfall
Requirements: Fireball level 3, Icicle Lance level 3, Lightning level 3
Body parts used: Head
Deals ranged INT-based bash damage to all enemies. Attempts to stun hit targets. Has a 150% speed modifier and 130 base accuracy at all levels.
Rockfall isn't that fantastic on its own, but when used with Multistrike, it actually has a pretty decent shot at stunning something that doesn't have 10% resistance to stun! Unfortunately, most bosses do have 10% resistance to stun, but hey.Alter
Requirements: Windstorm level 5, Earth Spike level 5, Rockfall level 5
Body parts used: Head
Three turns after casting, deals ranged INT-based bash damage to one enemy at the start of the turn. Attempts to inflict petrification on the target. Alter's damage is increased based on how many times the target's weaknesses are hit between when it's cased and when it goes off--this includes attacks from the caster and any party members. The amount of increases is capped at 20. Compression and Multistrike apply to Alter if they are cast before/on the turn of the initial Alter preparation (before/on depends on High-Speed Incantation). Initial prep has a 90% speed modifier at all levels. Actual hit has 200 base accuracy at all levels.
Alter is pretty damn strange, if that description didn't clue you in already. It's unquestionably a very strong skill, especially with Multistrike applied, but it also kind of requires that your team be built around it if you want to get maximum usage out of it. I should note, though, that Alter does gain multiple stacks of increased damage from multi-hit skills--something that took me by surprise since that's not usually how stuff works with multihit skills.Anti-Magic
Requirements: Magic Shield level 5
Gives a chance to negate INT-based attacks on the user's row.
...Neato. Something for leftover skill points.Life Drain
Requirements: Anti-Magic level 3
When the user hits an enemy's weakness (101% resistance or higher), their Union gauge is restored.
Union restoration's always good (especially since Lunarians actually have pretty decent Union skills), and Reserve Magic means you can proc Life Drain even when using physical skills.Incantation: Multistrike Form
Requirements: Incantation: Compression Form level 5
Body parts used: Head
On the next turn, skills will become multi-hit. Multistrike Form versions of skills deal 2-6 instances of damage. Each hit deals a percentage of the skill's normal damage. Has a 60% speed modifier at all levels.
Multistrike does more than just overall increasing damage. Remember how the physical skills all had extra effects attached? For Windstorm and Rockfall, each hit of a Multistrike version will attempt to inflict their disable. That alone makes it worth investing in, in my eyes, although I'd probably stop at either level 4 or level 9 for a while.Ruler of Fire, Ice, and Lightning Skills
Common Passives: Mag ATK Up, Curb DEF Up
Common Magic
Requirements: None
If a party member used an INT-based attack before the user, the user's damage is increased.
A strong argument for having another spellcaster in your party (say, a Shaman with Oracle: Dance), or at least stocking up on tons of Jars. Warlocks are just generally slow due to staff/artillery speed penalties and Lunarians having low AGI, so you can pretty much almost always get a Common Magic bonus if you actively try to.Explode / Ice Stream / Thunder Break
Requirements:
- Fireball level 5 for Explode
- Icicle Lance level 5 for Ice Stream
- Lightning level 5 for Thunder Break
Deals ranged INT-based fire/ice/volt damage to all enemies. Has an 80% speed modifier and 150 base accuracy at all levels.
I don't have a lot to say about these beyond "you'll need points in them" and "for the love of god think about how much you need levels in them early on," because seriously, I talked about potential TP issues before, but good lord.Magic Leak
Requirements: Explode level 3, Ice Stream level 3, Thunder Break level 3
Body parts used: Head
Places a buff on the user that restores a percentage of any TP they use to a random party member for a set amount of turns. Has no speed modifier at all levels.
Nnnnnnnnnot something I'm terribly interested in. The fact that it randomly targets one party member kind of kills it for me.Cost Cut
Requirements: Explode level 3, Ice Stream level 3, Thunder Break level 3
Gives a chance for the user to not expend TP when using a skill.
Free Energy, but it requires 10 levels now. Worth putting points into if you don't want to level up attack skills because of TP costs!Magic Weapon
Requirements: Magic Shield level 3
Body parts used: Arms
Deals INT-based damage to one enemy. The range and element are determined by the user's equipped weapon and any extra effects on it (if a Warlock has an artillery equipped and a Prayer: Purple Lightning effect, for example, Magic Weapon would deal bash+volt damage and be ranged). Has no speed modifier at all levels.
Magic Weapon is kind of bizarre, and it unfortunately isn't affected by Compression, but it can actually hurt quite a lot, and the damage to TP ratio is super efficient. The only downside to it is that you need your Warlock in the front row to make it actually hurt a lot, which...is actually a pretty big downside.Incantation: Reduction Form
Requirements: Incantation: Compression Form level 5
Body parts used: Head
On the next turn, reduces the damage of the user's next skill, but also reduces its TP cost. Has a 60% speed modifier at all levels.
...Eh. My big problem with Reduction is that you can't stack multiple Incantations on one turn, meaning that you not only lose out on damage from it, you also lose out on Compression damage. All to effectively save 20 (15 with level 5 High-Speed Incantation) TP per skill.Table of Contents